If I Die Young
by mustangmir
Summary: Alison thought she made the right decision to leave Rosewood behind but now she's not so sure. A certain brunette holds most of her heart. Can she admit her true feelings to her before it's too late? (Fill ins for season 1-5 partly follows show cannon and then it will change and deviate from the show , slow burn) ;;ON HOLD INDEFINITELY;;
1. Introduction

**Author** **Notes: This is my first attempt at PLL fan fic, I have done a few Buffy ones long ago. Please be gentle as I am going through a rough time right now and had to switch my major in school. I love these characters very much and promise to return them in better condition then I found them. ;) Special thank you to TGHall for helping me with this first part and doing quite a bit of editing to help me get my feet wet. I hope you all like this, I have the story pretty well map out but suggestions welcome. Feedback and constructive criticism are always welcome!**

Introduction

Emily sits stiffly, besides her Spencer; the pillar of strength holds Aria's hand as the tiny brunette death grips her. Hanna sits unusually quiet and pensive the usually bubbly blonde hasn't said a word since they entered the church but no one knows what to say anyway. Emily just can't believe this happening; she can't wrap her mind around this loss. She's gone. She's really gone.

Emily read once that grief was like being numb to everything else, that when you lost someone important it was like all beauty in the world was tainted, less somehow. Emily wishes she felt numb. Wishes she didn't feel anything because this pain is crushing, it's like someone is ripping her insides out of her body, like her whole being is revolting against itself. Because she's gone and she's not coming back, Emily's first love; even though she'd never said it out loud that was what Ali was, her first love, her first heartbreak, and her first loss. She just recently she admitted it to herself the extent of her feelings and how cruel of the world that Emily would discover herself and finally accept her feelings in perfect sync with the discovery of Alison's body. It was like a sick joke. She had always held a little hope in the back of her mind that Alison would walk back into their lives, flash a smile and laugh about how worried everyone was, but in Emily's dreams she'd also smile and kiss Emily's cheek in some show of apology for scaring the brunette, it would have been sweet and tender and Emily would have blushed for days. But instead here they all sat staring in disbelief at Alison DiLaurentis' closed casket.

Alison's moms had talk to the girls before the funeral and ask if they had any suggestion for a song to play during her funeral. Alison always had a flare for the dramatics and it only seemed fitting that her last song be one no one would forget. The girls had all decided on the song "If I Die Young" by the Band Perry.

As the song starts to play Emily tries her best to keep it together, she doesn't want the girls to ask her any questions, at least not right now. Before she can stop herself her body is over taken with sobs and tears. Spencer puts her arm comfortingly around Emily and she can see the tears shining in Spencer's eyes as well. Aria still has a death grip on Spencer's other hand, and Hanna just sits there looking lost, as she thinks how to help Emily and the girls deal with this let alone how to deal with it herself.

From somewhere near the back of the church there is a strangled sounding sob and a few people turn to see where it came from but the girls are all so distraught that none of them seem to notice.


	2. Chapter 1

**Alison**

Noel Kahn had become a close friend over the past year; it didn't start out that way though. She had first been black mailing him so he would help her but after a few months the shaky pairing had become true friends. That's why she was able to sneak into her own funeral. Noel had gone to the church the night before and found a place where Alison could see the funeral below but not be seen.

To be on the safe side she had put on a dark wig to cover hear blonde curls and wore a pair of oversized Breakfast at Tiffany's glasses. She was up in the balcony in a small room that looked out over the chapel below. She was looking through the two way mirror watching the people below. One in particular had her full attention and that was Emily Fields. She wasn't sure why Emily has such an effect on her but she does, it can't be love, Alison DiLaurentis doesn't love anyone at least not truly. Her mother and father always kept her and her brother at an arm's length and never showed them much affection. She didn't need anyone, but why did Emily have such a pull over her.

From the chapel below Alison heard a familiar song playing, one of her favorites actually. Of course this would be the song played at her funeral. She looked again at Emily unable to keep her eyes off of her for any extended period of time. She could see Emily shaking uncontrollably, she was about to run out the door and grab Emily and never let her go when she felt a strong pair of arms around her waist. Before she could stop it a strangled whimper tore from her throat and tears fell down her cheeks unchecked. She never broke down like this, not in front of any one before but the sight of Emily so heartbroken awoken something deep inside her. She didn't like to acknowledge those feelings, growing up her parents never really showed her much, if any love or kindness. What her mom did teach, however, was how to tell a really good lie. Drama and intrigue were always a part of her life for as long as she could remember.

"Damn it Noel, let me go." Alison pleaded as the tears just kept coming relentlessly.

"Alison, use your head! You are suppose to be dead, how are you going to explain to all those people, let alone the police and the media why you are at YOUR own funeral?!" Alison had sort of become like a little sister to him, albeit he still thought she was hot, crazy as all get out but hot as hell.

Alison was starting to sag in Noel's arms unable to bear looking at Emily any longer she turned and buried her face in Noel's chest mumbling incoherently. Noel just held her rubbing her back trying to console her. He had never seen her like this so vulnerable and raw.


	3. Chapter 2

For months Alison laid low in an abounded warehouse wishing she could get Emily off her mind. She had found out from Noel about the crap that Ben pulled in the locker room and it had taken every ounce of her being not to go finish the ass whooping that Toby had started. She had to keep reminding herself that the whole reason she left was to keep Emily and the others safe. She needed to deal with the bitch A before she could come back. She couldn't stand the thought of something happening to her friends because of her, especially Em. Noel tried to come by at least once a week to let her know what was going on with girls which somewhat eased her mind.

Noel also told her about Emily dating Maya which had caused a giant knot to form in her stomach and left her feeling like all the oxygen had left the room. She wanted to be happy for Emily, relieved she was able to move on with some semblance of a normal life. But it felt like it was literally killing her, when Emily had been with Ben it never really bothered her, because she knew that Emily never really had any feelings for him. He was there as a cover, so she didn't have to explain to anyone who she really was. But this was different Emily could actually fall for Maya. For days she wrestled with the idea of trying to sneak to Rosewood to check on Emily and see what was so interesting about this new girl who was living in her house and sleeping in her bedroom and basically taking her place with Emily. Even though Emily was never hers because she had made her feel like she didn't care. She decided, however, that once she saw Emily again she probably wouldn't be able to force herself to leave at least without trying to make contact with Em. Or worse she would hunt down Maya and show her the old Alison DiLaurentis that had ruled Rosewood with an iron fist. By the time she would be done with Maya she'd wish she was never been born let alone moved to Rosewood and encroached on her territory.

Noel dreaded telling Alison about the "accident", he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to stop her from going to Rosewood this time.

"Alright Noel just tell me what is going on, and don't tell me it's nothing I can read it all over your face." Alison always had a knack for reading people and right now Noel's body language and his inability to look her directly in the eye told her he had something he didn't want to tell her.

"Ali, just promise me you won't go off half cocked and do something stupid." Noel begged her, still avoiding her blue probing eyes. He knew if he looked into her eyes she'd know everything without him opening his mouth.

"No fucking games Noel just tell me!" The old Alison DiLaurentis temper starting to rear its ugly head.

Noel decided he better say something before he pushed his luck too much. "There was an accident while the girls were at Camp Mona…"

Alison felt like there was a vice grip around her chest, "Is it Em?" she was barely able to choke out over the bands tightening around her lungs.

"NO! Emily is fine, a little shaken up but it's Hanna. She was, um, she was hit by a car..."

"That bitch, when I get my hands on her, him, or whatever the fuck they are their DEAD!" Alison is screaming and pacing around the warehouse.

"They took her to the hospital, it is just a broken leg and some scratches Ali, she's going to be fine." Noel was desperately trying to diffuse the situation before Alison did something stupid.

"Fine?! Really Noel, she could've been killed. Alison had to go see her; she needed to see that she is okay for herself." Alison was already half way up the stairs before Noel realized what was going on.

He knew he couldn't stop her when her mind was made up.

"If you are going to go back you have to promise me two things first Alison." Noel looked Alison right in the eyes to make sure she was going to at least hear him out.

"Fine! What are these demands?" Alison asks trying her best not to sound as irritated as she felt right now.

"Okay, first of all you have to give me your word that you will NOT try to make contact or see Emily."

"Wait? Why?" Alison tried to hide the shock in her face and voice. Noel must be a lot smarter than she gave him credit for. She thought she had hid her confused feelings for Emily better than that.

"You can't make rational decisions when you see her Ali. You almost outed yourself to everyone at your funeral to comfort her." The word play Noel used was not lost on Alison.

"Alright, alright what is the other promise?" She ask bitterness dripping from her words, he'd already ripped her heart out when he told her about Maya and now she couldn't even see Emily from a far.

"Let me help you get into the hospital to see Hanna."

"What are you going to do sneak me in, in a food cart?" She asks with a slight laugh in her voice.

"Nope I have a better idea…Candy striper!" Noel said with a huge goofy grin plastered on his face.

Alison rolled her eyes and tried not to laugh at the stupid smile he gave her, "Fine I'll do it your way…this time."


	4. Chapter 3

**Author** **Notes: If you like the story and want to read more than PLEASE, please review. Let me know what you think and if there is anything you might like. I'm open to feedback, suggestions, and/or constructive criticism. Thank you very much to the guest reviewer for your kind words, I hope you all enjoy!**

Alison was able to get a burner phone from Noel to use in case of emergencies. The only person who had the number is Noel, who would text to check on her when he couldn't get away to see her. So when she heard the chime of message she figured it was Noel flaking on her this week.

"Can you save her before it's too late?

-A"

At the bottom of the text there was an attachment. Alison clicked on it and a map with an address popped up with "Tick-Tock" written across it in red.

Alison felt like her whole world was imploding. She had never felt anything like it before. She had to get to Emily no matter what the cost; she never told her how much she meant to her. She wasn't hundred percent sure of her feelings, but she knew she didn't want to live in a world without Emily Fields.

She had to use what little money she had left and called a taxi. She gave the driver the address and her last $100. "I need to get there as fucking fast as you can."

What would have been an almost 30 minute drive took only fifteen minutes. Alison looked out the window at an old barn. She thanked the drive and got out of the car. Did "A" trick her? Was this a trap? As she got closer to the barn she could hear a car idling. It was coming from inside the barn.

Alison pulled out the piece of wood jammed in the door and prayed the whole time she wasn't too late to save Em. When she finally pulled the huge barn door open she saw Emily lying just on the other side of the door. She used all her strength to pull Emily out.

She dragged Em a few feet from the barn and took off her jacket and laid it across her legs and pulled Emily's head in her lap. She waited for what felt like hours watching as Emily's chest rose and fell, she was still breathing thank God.

Emily slowly opened her eyes a look of uncertainty covering her beautiful features.

"It's okay. You're with me now." Alison tells her reassuringly.

"Alison?" She asks confusion swirling in her gorgeous chocolate eyes.

"It's so good to see you, Emily." Those eyes could melt Alison like no one else's ever could.

"I think I miss you the most." Emily stirs and she tries to sit up. She wants to be able to see Alison, look directly in her ocean blue eyes.

"Just rest." She stops Emily from getting up by gently putting her hand behind her head.

"It's what you need. Rest."

"I never told you this, but..." Alison decided it was now or never.

"You were always my favorite."

"Nobody loved me as much as you did." And if she wasn't such a coward maybe just maybe she could love Em back.

"Is this what dying is?" Emily looks at Alison with slight fear in her eyes.

"That bitch thinks this is what you really want- to be completely free of "A." Alison was going to make the bitch pay for this one way or another. No one messes with her Emily.

"Do you know who "A" is?"

"Of course I do." After her trip to the Lost Woods Resort awhile back she was pretty sure Mona was "A" or at the very least working for "A".

"You have to tell me."

"I don't think that's a good idea." If she tells her she could put her in more danger than she already has. She can't stand the thought of "A" finishing what they already started in the barn.

"Why?" Alison could see the uncertainty flash across Emily's stunning face.

"Because two can only keep a secret if one of them is dead." Alison hoped that Emily would catch what she was truly saying.

"You have to decide what you want, Emily."

"You can stay here... Or you can come with me". Alison knew she shouldn't ask Emily to come with her but she was hoping deep down that Emily would take her up on the offer.

Emily's eyes flutter shut

"Sweet Emily." Alison couldn't help herself she bends down and gentle kisses Emily's silky soft lips. She gentle lays Emily down on the ground and puts her jacket back on suddenly feeling small and cold. She hid in the brush until she saw the girls pulling up in Spencer's car. Leaving Emily there was one of the hardest things she's had to do in a long time but she knew she would be safe with the girls. She left part of herself there with Emily and she knew she wouldn't feel whole again till she could stay with her in Rosewood. But first she had to get things with "A" taken care of first. Once she knew Emily was safe she takes out her phone and shoots a quick text to Noel to come get her in the park about half a mile from the barn.

As she was coming around the corner of the park she saw the all too familiar site of Noel's car and he did not look happy at all.

"What the hell are you thinking Alison?" There was irritation laced with concern in his voice.

Before he could say anything else she lost it completely, "its Em, the bitch went after Em!" despair in her voice.

"Oh Ali, I'm sorry. Is she okay?" Concern etched Noel's face. He knew Alison deeply cared for Emily, even if she couldn't admit to any one even herself.

"I got there just barely in time." The memory of finding Emily unconscious, filling her with terror, what would she have done if she was too late? Stop it she thought to herself from now on she decided she would keep a better eye on the girls especially Em. From now on she has to come to Rosewood as often as she can without being caught, she couldn't risk losing Emily not when she was just starting to process her feelings for her.


	5. Chapter 4

**Author** **Notes: If you like the story and want to read more than PLEASE, please review. Let me know what you think and if there is anything you might like. I'm open to feedback, suggestions, and/or constructive criticism. Than you so much to Jwu17, Nat, and proudrusher32 for leaving reviews you have no idea how much it meant to me. I hope you all enjoy this part. I have really enjoyed writing it. If there is something you would like to see happen or some suggestions please leave a review.**

Alison was very careful whenever she visited Rosewood, she wore a dark wig to cover her blonde locks and sunglasses to cover her piercing blue eyes. She'd been keeping an eye on her brother who had come back to clean out their house. He had a bag of her things that he gave to the girls and she had been biding her time waiting to get a chance to look through the bag and see what was in it. She followed Spencer, who now had the bag, to her house. She watched outside of the Hastings's window as Spencer took some meds for her recent injury and lay down. When Alison was pretty sure she was out she picked the lock and crept in. She was bent over the bag digging through her things when she heard a sharp intake of breath.

With fear in her eyes she asked Spencer, make that slightly beg her, "Don't…Don't scream please."

"I need something from the bag."

"What?" She asks with a puzzled look on her face. Was this a dream? Alison was alive, no that can't be, they had found her body.

"You're really mad at me, aren't you?" Concern covered Alison face for a split second.

"Not telling you about Jason."

"Alison..." Spencer asked confusion coloring her face.

Alison interrupts before she can finish. "-Things would have been so different if I'd spilled."

"I mean, Jason's your brother, too, and that practically makes us sisters, right?"

"You deserve a decent sister." Spencer could tell she was talking about Melissa by the look Alison gave her. Melissa and Spencer relationship was pretty shitty to say the least

"Qu'est-ce que c'est? Ohh, painkillers?"

"Mind if I take a couple for the road?"

"What road? You're still hiding out as Vivian?"

"Alison, Aria met Duncan, he took her up in his plane, and he told her that he flew you back from Hilton Head that day." Spencer needed answers why was Alison lying to them all? What was she trying to hide?

"He talks too much,' she said with disgust, why'd she ever trust that loser to keep his mouth shut? 'But I'm glad you guys haven't given up." The good news was the girls still cared about her and where trying to figure out what truly happened.

This gave her some hope. "Maybe now that you've got this... "Spencer interrupted her before she could finish with she could come home but maybe it was better she didn't say it out loud, then it wouldn't be so disappointing when it all fell apart.

"Why? What's in there? What should I be looking for?" Spencer implored Alison.

"Can't tell you" Alison picked up the bag and made sure Spencer was looking in her eyes and tells her, "But don't get hung up on the details and miss what's parked right in front of you." desperation in her voice for Spencer to understand what she was trying to tell her.

"I miss you, Spence." She told Spencer as she reached out to touch her, she'd never usually admit it but it had been so long since she had seen her. She missed the friendly and not so friendly competitions between them.

"I miss that fierce look you'd get in your eyes when you had to know the answer, had to win the game."

"But this isn't yahtzee, sweetie."

"This is some seriously messed-up stuff." She needed Spencer to understand how dangerous this, "A" really was!

"But here's the good news- you're getting warmer." Alison could tell Spencer was more resigned than ever to figure out what all the pieces meant.

Alison and Spencer heard a loud banging coming from upstairs. While Spencer grabbed the bag and shoved it under the couch Alison snuck out the door and ran, if she got caught now all would be for not. She was hoping that Spencer would think her visiting was all a dream and chalk it up to the painkillers.

Alison decided to stay in Rosewood for a bit longer this time to see if the clues she gave Spencer helped them get closer to figuring out that Mona was working with "A". On the plus side she could also use this opportunity to see Emily and make sure she was alright for herself.

She couldn't stand to see how Mona was trying to get close to the girls. She needs to keep a close eye to make sure the girls were safe. From what she could see from following Mona for the last few days, she was planning something at the Masquerade Ball.

The good thing about the Ball was that everyone was wearing a mask, so with the dark wig and her mask Alison blended in with everyone else. When she got there she looked around for the girls but they obviously hadn't arrived yet. Out of the corner of her eye Alison say a group of four girls enter through the doors. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw Emily enter in a beautiful blue dress that hug her swimmers curves beautifully. Emily always looked amazing in almost anything but she looked breath taking. " _Focus DiLaurentis!"_ she thought to herself _"This is about keeping the GIRLS safe."_ She needed to stay focused, the girls were in danger.

When the girls split up Alison decided to follow Emily and keep an eye on Mona as well. She knew she should watch Mona mostly but she couldn't help but be drawn to Em. Hanna was with Caleb and Aria had found Ezra. She tried to keep Mona and Emily both in sight but unfortunately when she turned to check on Mona she was gone. "Fuck!"

Alison frantically started looking for her, but she was nowhere to be seen…and Spencer was missing as well. _"Shit where would she have taken her, think ALISON, think?!"_ Then it hit her, that day that Mona helped her leave town she took her to the Lost Resort. She was about to head out to the parking lot when she saw the girls leaving in a hurry and she decided she should follow them. Noel owed her, so he had given her a key to his car to use in case of emergency, so she jumped in his car and followed behind, far enough to not be seen but close enough not to lose them.

Alison could see Spencer and Mona in the lights of Hanna's car. She pulled off onto a little outlet to watch from a distance but still be close enough to help the girls if they needed her. She saw Hanna drive straight at Mona and stop a few feet before hitting her. Mona lunged at Spencer and before she got the chance to even think, Mona went over the edge of the cliff. Alison decided she better just stay in the car and keep her distance to make sure they were safe. She couldn't risk being seen. She knew she needed to leave but she needed to know Emily was safely back in Rosewood.

When they got back to Rosewood Alison was prepared to leave but flashing lights from in front of the Fields house got her attention. She crept into some trees outside the house and tried to hear what was going on. She prayed that Mr. Fields was alright, Emily couldn't stand that kind of blow after everything that had happened today.

She saw the girls rounding the corner and Emily's face fell. Emily ran through the crowd of people straight to her mother. I clung to the tree I was standing next to, to keep my feet rooted to the spot.

Mrs. Fields looks devastated and she says, "Honey, they found a body." Emily looks visible shaken as her mom continues. "They think it's—it's Maya."

Alison stood there unable to move, to think. Her sweet Emily had been through so much, even though Alison wasn't too thrilled about Maya she would have never wished something like this to happen, ever. All she wanted was for Emily to be happy and here she was with her heart ripped apart all over again.

The girls held Emily up as she starts to fall apart, Alison turns and runs away because if she doesn't get out of here she won't be able to stop herself from running to Emily and wrapping her arms around her and keep holding her till she stops crying. Seeing Emily like this was killing her, she needed to put as much distance between them right now as possible.


	6. Chapter 5

**Flash backs are in** ** _Bold and_ _italics_.** **I absolutely love writing this story thus far. Please review and/or give any suggestions you might have I really do appreciate them. Thank you so much to the guest reviewer, I am glad you are enjoying the story. Also to be on the safe side *spoiler warning till the new stuff in Nov and Jan.***

After finding out that Mona was committed to Radley, Alison decided to lay low for a while at the warehouse. A few other people had moved in as well so the place isn't quite as lonely. She decided to call her friend Shana to see what the girls were up to and see if she figured out any more information on who had tried to kill her that night. She grew up playing with Shana during summers she spent with her grandma in Georgia. They were pretty close back then and she really relied on her now to get money to her. She had dumped her burner phone after the text from "A" because she didn't want that crazy bitch to trace her location. She now relied on a pay phone a few blocks from the warehouse.

One night after talking to Shana to get an update on the girls she met a handsome man named Cyrus Petrillo, normal she wouldn't have even noticed him but Shana told Alison about Emily and Paige dating. She knew she shouldn't let it bother her; she can't love anyone truly so why should it be a big deal if Emily moved on. When she came out of the phone booth she was starting to tear up a bit and she didn't see him standing there. She almost ran face first right into him.

"Hey watch it asshole." The old DiLaurentis temper flaring up.

"Sorry I didn't see you there." He said in a sincere tone.

"Are you alright?" He asked her seeing the unshed tears in her eyes.

Alison wanted to say something mean or sarcastic back to him but it had been so long since someone had been nice to her. "It's nothing." She lied.

He decided not to push but instead ask her, "Hey do you want to go to a party?"

She didn't owe anybody anything, if Emily had moved on with pigskin then why shouldn't she go have fun with some random guy. She was straight after all, she had always dated guys, these strange feelings she had for Emily were just a fluke. She needed to get her off her mind and what better way than a new guy.

For a few weeks everything was new and exciting. Cyrus took her to crazy parties and all night benders. Alison felt like she might actually be able to forget about Em being with Paige.

One night before a huge party at an abounded loft Cyrus asks Ali if she had a way to get some money for the party. She decided to stop by an ATM to get out the money that Shana had sent her. Why not, she could use a little bit and get some liquor for the party. Cyrus was standing over her shoulder when she took out the money.

"Damn Ali, where'd you get that kind of money?"

"I know a few people." She slide the money in her bag and didn't give it another thought

After the party Cyrus asks Alison if she has a place to crash. She told him about the warehouse and how people come and go all the time so no one would mind if he crashed there.

She grabbed his hand as she led him down the stairs and introduced him to the small group of people who regular slept there.

He stayed for a few weeks and one night after a pretty wild party Alison crashed on her cot and was ripped from sleep by the sound of someone grabbing her bag.

It was Cyrus. "Hey!" Alison yelled jumping from the cot. "My bag!" She ran after him as he headed for the stairs. She grabbed a hold of the bag. Cyrus whipped around and grabbed Alison and threw her into a, set shelves. She tried to fight back but he pushed her hard and she hit the concrete wall with a thud.

He was on top of her before she could think. She was pushing at his face trying to break free. He was covering her face as she was trying to scream.

"Hey, get off me!" She was able to get out though muffled by his hand. He pulled a switch blade out of his pocket. _"I can't die like this, not after all I've survived!"_ Alison thought desperately. Cyrus took a slash at Alison's thigh to break her grip and turned and grabbed her bag. He left with one of the girls that I had considered a friend while staying here for so long.

The pain was almost unbearable but then a new pain spread through her chest. Emily was falling for someone else, she was able to push it out of her mind for a few months while partying and drinking herself into oblivion with Cy. But now all that pain flooded back in from the night she found out that Em and Paige were dating.

She couldn't believe she had let her guard down so much with Cy. Part of it was to spite the tumultuous feelings she had for Emily and then part of it was she was lonely and he seemed like a sweet guy. But all he wanted was a good time and her money.

After the cut on her thigh was mostly healed Alison decided it was time to check up on the girls in Rosewood again. She needed to check on Emily and make sure she was alright; it had been too long since she had seen any of the girls.

The first person Ali saw when she made it back to Rosewood was Meredith; she saw her walking it the high school with an arm full of books and a bag from the pharmacy around the corner. _What is that bitch doing here?_ One of the last times she saw Meredith was when she was shoving her tongue down Aria's dad's throat! She decided she needed to keep an eye on her and figure out why she was at Rosewood High.

Alison followed Meredith to Aria's house. She hide just across the street waiting, she heard some yelling and Meredith storming out the front door. A few minutes later Aria snuck out the door and followed Meredith. Alison decided she should follow as well. Through the window of the Brew she sees Meredith pull pages out of her purse and Aria grabbed them from her hand. _Pages from my diary?_ She knew Meredith had found the entry she had made about how she was blackmailing Byron. She needed to get those pages back to see what else was in those pages. She also needed to make sure that Meredith didn't hurt Aria. _Alison remembered the day that Meredith cornered her in alley. Meredith scared her pretty badly and that was saying a lot since she was Queen Bitch in Rosewood. When Meredith threatened to make Alison disappear permanently she believed her, that cold dead look in her eyes scared Alison to her core. She needed to get out of town even more now; she had to get that money._

Alison followed Meredith and Aria back to the Montgomery house and she slipped back in her hiding place waiting for the right opportunity to sneak in. Once Meredith left she was about to sneak out when she heard a car coming, it was Spencer and Emily soon followed by Hanna. Alison snuck onto the porch to see what the girls were talking about. Obviously Aria was sick and the girls were trying to help her feel better. She heard her tell the girls that the pages were well hidden. Alison decides she should wait to come back when the girls and Meredith are at school. It was just too risky with Meredith showing up randomly at Aria's.

Alison waited till it was almost afternoon before she picked the lock and snuck upstairs. She opened the door as quietly as she could. _Where would Aria hide them?_ She decided to look in her desk and then her purse with no luck. As she turned she saw the closet was open, she remembered that Aria had a secret panel in the back of her closet. After she pulled it open she found a porcelain doll. _Got ya!_

Aria hears someone messing with the panel in her closet and turns over. "Hey, what are you doing?"

Alison pushes the doll head forward and takes out her diary pages."I'm taking back what's mine."

"Is this a dream?" Aria asks confusion covering her still sleepy features.

"No, sweetie, I'm more real than I've ever been." Alison says with a bit of a laugh in her voice. It would be nice if all this was a dream she could wake up from.

"Tell me what it's like."

"Tell me everything." Alison could see all the questions swirling around in Aria's head.

Alison walks over to her bed and sits next to her. "Well... I don't know who said knowledge was king... just an old fart, probably... but he was right. I see everything now. I missed so much when I was here."

"Do you see 'A'?"

"Everywhere I turn. So do you. You all do." Alison was looking into Aria's eyes trying to get her to understand. "I'm surprised Spencer hasn't figured that out." Spencer had to know that he was a part of "A's" army.

Alison unfolded the pages and started to look through them. "Did it really happen, what you wrote in those pages? Were you blackmailing my dad?"

"Byron's really coming around, isn't he? I mean, when the chips were down with Ezra's mom."

"Ali..." Aria begged Alison "I need to know the truth."

"If I tell you the truth, you don't have to believe it." Alison knew that with her history it was hard for others to believe her when she was being honest.

"Please" Aria asks with sincerity.

"I was desperate for that money," Alison admits.

"How could you do that to my family? To me?" Alison could see the hurt and betrayal written across Aria's features.

"It was just a threat. I never called your mom." Alison hoped that if she told her the truth she'd be able to forgive her.

"Did my dad kill you?" Aria ask with an edge of fear in her voice

"Do I look dead to you?" Alison says with a slight smirk. "I wouldn't drink that." She reaches out to warn Aria.

"What do you mean?" Aria asks uncertainly, looking at the cup next to her bed.

"Meredith is looking for these pages too" Alison gets up and turns to walk away when she hears Aria.

"Ali, wait."

Alison sets the doll down on Aria's desk and says, "You know why I picked you, right?" Aria shakes her head. Alison walks out and pulls the door closed behind her. She came to talk to Aria because she knew with her being sick and Meredith sneaking things in her "herbal" tea that Aria would think it was all just a hallucination. Now that she had the pages she decided it was probably best to leave Rosewood for a while. She didn't get a chance to see Emily very much but she decided that was probably for the best. She didn't think she could stand to see Emily with pigskin, damn it Paige, she needed to work on that, if Emily was truly happy with Paige she had no right to call her that terrible nickname she'd given her in the first place. All that matter to her was that Emily was safe and happy, even if it meant she was miserable.


	7. Chapter 6

**I've been having a real hard time lately and writing this story and reading all your reviews and feedback has been an amazing help so please, please take a minute and leave your feedback and/or suggestions. I hope you all are enjoying the story so far, I went quite a bit** **away** **from the show in some parts to explore Alison a bit more, she is a** **fascinating** **enigma** **.**

Alison called Shana to get an update on the girls, that's how she found out about Spencer being admitted to Radley. Shana told her about the welcome home party that was being held at the Lodge at Thornhill. Something didn't feel right about this, why not have, the party at Spencer's in the barn. Alison grabbed her red trench coat that she normal wears when she's in Rosewood and leaves the warehouse for Thornhill.

As she's making her way up the path to the lodge she can smell smoke. She takes off running toward the source. As she comes up over the hill she sees the lodge is completely engulfed in flames. _This can't be happening?!_ _How is she going to get everyone out on her own?_

She hears a familiar voice from somewhere behind her, "Ali!" Thank god it's Shana!

"You've got help me get the girls out!" Alison begs tears threatening to spill. She has to stay calm.

"Let's get in there then," Shana yells as she pushes her way in through one of the side doors. Almost immediately they are surrounded by smoke.

 _I have to find Emily, I can't lose her._ Alison is frantically trying to find Emily but before she can find her she sees Shana carrying her out in a fireman's hold. "Thank you so much Shana."

Shana knew how much Emily meant to Alison so she just smiled at her and said "grab Mona she's right beside my leg.

Alison knew she was nowhere near as strong as Shana so she grabbed Mona by the ankles and drug her out of the burning building as quickly as possible. She knew Aria and Hanna were still in there, she saw them both as she was pulling Mona out.

As she got closer to where Shana had set Emily down, she saw Shana headed back in. "I'll grab Aria if you can get Hanna!"

"What about Spencer?" Alison yelled out to Shana, she hadn't seen her anywhere in the Lodge.

"Last I saw her she was in the woods with Toby!" She yelled before running back in.

After Alison got Mona situated she headed back toward the lodge to retrieve Hanna. Shana came out holding Aria like a rag doll. "I'll set her with the others; I should take off before they come to. Will you be ok?"

"I got this Shana, thanks again. You are a good friend." Alison saw guilt or something flash behind her eyes. She shook it off; she needed to get Hanna out before it was too late.

As she laid Hanna down next to Aria she leaned over her to see if she was still breathing. Hanna's eyes fluttered open and looked directly at Alison's before they closed once more. It was time for her to leave before one of the girls saw her when they were completely awake. She turned and headed toward the woods chancing one more look behind her as she saw the four girls coming to. Once she saw Emily was sitting up and talking she ran off into the night.

The next time Alison talk to Shana, Shana told her that someone named CeCe had been asking her a lot of questions about her.

"CeCe Drake?" Alison asks Shana. She missed CeCe desperately; she had become incredible close to CeCe during the summer they spent together in Cape May. They had shared so many childhood memories and so many secrets that summer. They also caused a lot of trouble that summer as well.

"Yeah that's her name, how does she know that I knew you?" Shana asks with worry lacing her voice.

"Remember that summer I spent with my family in Cape May? We got really close and I told her about the summers we spent in Georgia and all the trouble we got in." Alison said with a hint of laughter in her voice. She had a smile flash across her face for a brief minute thinking about simpler times.

"Tell her I want to see her." Alison decided she could use another friend as Noel had been MIA as of late.

"OMG Ali!" CeCe runs into the little crappy dinner they agreed to meet at and grabs Alison in a huge bear hug.

"CeCe…can't…breathe…" Alison gasps out. CeCe lets Ali go with a tear in her eyes.

"It's so good to see you CeCe; I've missed you so much."

"This whole lifestyle on the lamb thing looks good on you Ali!" CeCe says looking Alison up and down. "Love the dark wig and red trench, you're really working it!" Leave it to CeCe to find the silver lining.

"So how are you doing girlfriend? I've missed you so much, when I found out you were alive…" CeCe takes a shuddering breathes, "It was like a miracle."

It felt like old times, to Alison, being there with CeCe and catching up. Alison missed being able to just be herself and not be constantly on guard. Before CeCe left she gave Alison her number and told her, "Call me if you ever need anything or just need to talk sweetie, love you Ali."

"Love you to CeCe!" Alison said giving her one last hug before leaving the dinner. CeCe had always felt like a big sister to her, and with Jason never really being there she filled that void for her.

Over the next few weeks Alison meets with CeCe a few more times at the dinner.

"So what's up with Americano, I thought she was in love with you? I mean she practically worshipped the ground you walked on!" CeCe seemed extremely irritated about Emily.

"What are you talking about? Is Em okay?" Alison asks feeling a lead weight settle into her stomach.

"I saw her getting all close and personal with pigskin! Can you believe that?! I thought you scared that bitch off!" Alison flinched at the horrible nickname she'd given Paige coming out of CeCe's mouth.

Emily was still with Paige; her heart was breaking all over again.

CeCe saw the change in Ali's demeanor, "are you okay Ali?"

Alison tried to shake it off and gave a weak smile, "yeah, I'm fine."

CeCe could tell there was more to it, "Ali sweetie, I know you better than that. You know you can tell me anything."

Alison took a deep breath, she had to talk to someone these feelings were eating her alive. CeCe had been there for her through so much. "It's just…I've been having these strange feelings…." CeCe was focusing all of her attention on Ali with a hint of concern on her face.

"Go on Ali." CeCe tells her with no judgment just curiosity covering her features.

"Well… I have these…um... these feelings for Emily that I don't quite understand?" Alison starts out stuttering over her words and then spills the rest coming out in one long word.

"Ali do you love Americano?" CeCe asks with love in her voice. Alison was expecting her to look at her like she was damaged or revolting.

"I like guys CeCe, I'm Alison fucking DiLaurentis I don't LOVE." Alison was desperately trying to build her walls back up. "You've been around my family, we don't do love, we do fear!"

"I don't even know what love would feel like?"

If it felt like falling into the abyss like she feels when she's without Emily, then maybe. _No stop that Alison now you're just being a stupid child._ She heard in her mother's voice.

CeCe grabs Alison's hand from across the table. "Ali if you do love Emily it's ok. You will always have my support. CeCe flash her, a genuine smile that causes a slight dimple under her left eye.

"Thank you CeCe." Alison says as she gets up from the table and pulls CeCe in for a hug before leaving the dinner. "Love you CeCe!"

"Love you too Ali!" CeCe says with a smile and a small tear in her eye.

It felt good to talk to CeCe about Emily; it felt like a weight was off her chest. If CeCe didn't freak out by her revelation about her mixed up feelings for Em then maybe she could sort through her feelings without so much fear of the unknown.


	8. Chapter 7

**This chapter is considerably longer, I didn't want to break it into 2 parts as it seem to flow really nice together. I really hope you all enjoy it. I really wanted to play around with some of the characters and their emotions to build relationships. I some times have trouble** **processing** **emotions as I have slight** **Asperger's so if it doesn't translate well I'm truly sorry.** **Please, please review and if you have any suggestions I am always open.**

Alison had decided to leave the warehouse behind; there were just too many memories there. She remembered the bed and breakfast that Aria and parents us to go to, called the Busy Bee Inn, she use to go there all the time to get away from Jason and his nasty friends after it shut down. She broke the lock on one of the doors a long time ago, she was pretty sure she could get back in and no one would think to look for her there.

After she got all her things moved in and settled, her mind kept wondering back to Emily. Alison tried to stay away from Ravenswood, but it was like a siren calling her back. She missed the girls so much, especial Emily who seems to invade her every waking thought, she was also constantly dreaming of her and the memories from before she had to leave town. Lately, however, she'd wake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat because of some horrible thing happening to her sweet Emily. She hadn't got a full night sleep in weeks.

As she made her way into Rosewood she found herself back at her house. She noticed the girls were leaving from Spencer's house talking about going to Ravenswood. _Shit, they aren't safe there, I need to follow them. They have no idea what's going on in that town._ She had been following a hooded figure around Ravenswood and had found his lair there. She found out it was Ezra that had been chasing her. She knew he was planning on writing a story about her, but she didn't realize how obsessed he had become. She was having trouble believing it, Ezra had always seemed to be such a sweet person. If she can help the girls discover this information maybe, just maybe she can finally come home and they can figure out how Ezra was involved. Alison knew it was risky going back there but she had no choice, so she called the only person she could think of for help.

"CeCe I need you, meet at the woods next to my house. I'll explain on the way."

As they speed through town towards Ravenswood, Alison told CeCe about the girls going there and how she had a bad feeling that someone was trying to hurt the girls. She gave her just enough information to keep her from asking too many questions, she couldn't stand to put anyone else she cared about in jeopardy.

As they pulled into town Alison saw the girls standing and watching a magic show. Alison asks CeCe to wait while she checked on the girls. She put her hood up and glasses on and made her way across the street. She stood next to a building about 50 feet away from the show. While they were busy watching the mime on stage Alison sees a figure in a black hood snuck up and put something over Emily's mouth and another person throws her limp body over their shoulder and took off. Alison looked back desperately at CeCe who had made her way next to Alison carrying a similar red trench coat.

"Go follow them; I'll lead the girls to you!" CeCe said as she put on the trench coat.

When Alison entered the warehouse she heard a scuffle, the sound of a saw, and two sets of footsteps run off and a door slams shut. A few seconds later CeCe runs in.

"Hide Ali the girls are right behind…" Alison took off and hides behind some crates as she heard Aria and Spencer calling for Emily. She so desperately wanted to run out and help them to get Emily out before she was cut to shreds. She was starting to hyperventilate she couldn't bear the thought of Em dying before she could see her again.

Emily's cries of terror where almost too much for Alison to stand, CeCe had made her way over to Alison and put her hand on her shoulder. "Please CeCe… we have to save her!" Alison said between shuddering breathes.

"Alison, while Spencer, Aria, and Hanna are focused on figuring out how to get Emily out, you need to go over to that main panel and hit the emergency shut off switch. I'll distract them after you turn it off."

Alison runs out of from her hiding spot and sees the panel CeCe was describing. She focuses all her attention on it and runs over and hits the red button.

Letting out a breath she didn't even realize she was holding, Alison closes her eyes in a silent prayer _thank God I wasn't too late._

"There are two of them?" Aria says looking right at where Alison was standing.

CeCe takes off up the stairs hoping to draw the girls' attention.

Alison hears footsteps behind her, she decides that it's now or never to lead the girls to the lair she's found. She runs across the street and waits outside the apartment as she sees Spencer's reflection in the window, she heads up the stairs.

Alison waits in the hiding spot she found previously, a secret panel that leads between the walls. She was able to make two holes in a poster to spy on Ezra. Spencer must have told Aria, Hanna, and Emily about the apartment because she could her multiple footsteps approaching. The girls searched through everything for hours gathering more information. Alison hoped it will be enough, being this close to Emily makes it that much harder to leave, but she knows it's not safe.

After several hours the girls come out of the apartment and Alison decides to follow them and make sure they don't get in any trouble. They lead her to the party in the graveyard and, she hangs back a bit trying not to be seen. All she needs now is to be caught by Ezra when her guards down. _Shit!_ She sees the girls coming around the corner and takes off for the secret tunnels under the graveyard.

She hears them following so she ducks behind a door in the crypt and pushes the statue away from the secret passage. This is where Mrs. Grunwald had showed Alison how to sneak into the mansion so she could help her figure out who "A" was before she went missing. At least with Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer following her maybe she can lead them away from Ezra. Winding her way through she soon realizes the girls are no longer behind her. _Damn it._ She stops and takes her lipstick out of her trench coat pocket and writes "Help me" on the wall hoping that when they see it they will keep looking. She heads to the mansion located up the set of stairs across from where she left the message hoping the girls figure it out how to get into the mansion like Mrs. Grunwald had showed her to avoid being followed.

Alison enters the door and starts wondering around for a bit. She hears screaming and the sounds of someone trying to get out of a room or a closet. As she walks down a long hallway where she sees on old phone both with someone inside, she peers in.

"Ali?" Hanna says in disbelief. Just then a dark figure grabs Alison from behind. The figure looks in through the door at Hanna with an old style gas mask on like they had seen earlier in 'A's" lair. While he was distracted looking at Hanna, Alison made a break for it while she could.

Hanna turns to grab the phone to hit the dark figure but when she turns around they're gone.

Alison knew she needed to get out there as soon as possible; Ezra would keep looking for her in Ravenswood for quite awhile before giving up.

Alison called CeCe and asks her to drop her off by her house. She waited in the woods to make sure that Hanna, Spencer, Aria, and Emily made it back safely.

She was about to give up and was thinking about calling Cece to take her back to Ravenswood to look for them when she saw a car pull up and let the girls out. Aria bent down and was talking to someone through the window; her blood ran cold... it was Ezra. As Aria was walking away from the car, he drove off, Alison turned to leave and stepped on a branch with aloud "SNAP".

"Alison?" Emily calls after her confusion in her voice.

 _Shit!_ She had to try to get away before she couldn't drag herself to do so. Hearing Emily's voice was the best feeling in the world to her, it had been so long. She ran through Spencer's yard back towards the barn, she could hear the girls right behind her. Something inside her was so tired of running, in that moment she decided it was time to stop.

"Alison?" This time it was Aria who spoke.

Alison slowly puts her hood down on her trench coat and turns around.

"Did you miss me?" She asks with her trademark smirk. For a few minutes no one knows what to say. Alison's eyes lock with Emily's and she can feel the relief in Emily's chocolate brown eyes, Alison's heart flutters for brief moment.

"It was you, wasn't it? In Ravenswood." Aria asks searching Alison's expression.

Alison starts to say something when a set of headlights catches her attention.

"Look, I don't have much time."

"It's still not safe for me to be here." She says with regret.

"Ali, don't leave again." Emily begs she doesn't want to lose Alison after all this time.

"Look, I wanna come home, but you have to help me." All she thought about for the last few months was finally being able to come back and try to rebuild her life. She also wanted to able to figure out why Emily still had such a pull over her after all this time.

"Why? Who are you afraid of?" Spencer asks with determination, she was always the bravest one constantly taking problems head on.

"Remember what I told you in the hospital, Hanna?" Alison wills Hanna to remember her eyes searching Hanna's.

"That was really you? Hanna can't believe Alison actually risked coming to see her.

A car door shuts in front of the Hastings's house. The girls turn to see who is coming and turn to Alison.

Alison raises her finger to her mouth and shushes the girls to not say anything. She is visibly shaking with tears in the corner of her eyes.

The girls turn around as Ezra appears and Alison puts the hood of her coat back on, she slips behind the barn and takes off through her back yard hoping to get far enough away before Ezra notices she's there.

She runs blindly through the woods for the outskirts of town, tears flowing uncontrolled down her face. Seeing Emily opened up new breaks in her already tattered heart. She knew Emily was beautiful but seeing her tonight she was…breath taking! Emily was a beautiful soul both inside and out, and Alison couldn't believe that she still looked at her with so much love. How could Em still love her after all the hurt and pain she had caused her? All those years ago she had ripped poor Emily's heart out in the locker room at school. Emily had finally gotten the courage to make the first move and out of fear Alison had venomously spit at her that she wasn't like that, that she liked boys and if she was kissing her it was for practice. The look on Emily's face tore Alison to shreds. To this day she couldn't think about that day without mental kicking herself. The more she thought about it the faster the tears came and she started sobbing uncontrollably.

Just as she comes to the corner of town a car pulls up and throws open the door. Thankfully it's CeCe, "Get in Ali!" She yells before Alison even gets a chance to ask what she's doing there.

"Awe babe what's wrong?" CeCe ask grabbing Alison's hand as she speeds off.

CeCe takes Alison to the crappy little dinner they normal meet at and makes her order something to eat.

"When is the last time you ate Ali? You're skin and bones and you're shaking." CeCe asks concern etched on her face.

"A few days I guess." Alison says looking lost.

"Ali?!" CeCe says waiting for her to look at her. When her blue eyes meet CeCe's she can see this immense sadness emanating from them.

"Emily still loves me after all this time!" Alison squeaks out barely believing it herself.

"Of course she does Ali, she always has," CeCe tells her trying to sooth Alison's frazzled nerves.

"Now eat, do you have some where to stay? You look like you haven't slept in weeks."

Alison nods her head as she forces herself to eat the sandwich in front of her. After the first few bites she practically inhales the rest. She can't remember the last time she actually ate a full meal or slept for more than 30 minutes at a time.

"Is it a safe place to sleep?" CeCe knew Alison couldn't be doing too well; it had been a long time since Shana had been able to bring her money.

Alison tried to avoid CeCe's eyes, "safe enough..."

"I'm getting you a hotel for a few nights Ali…no arguing, now finish your chips and I will take care of it. You need some actual rest."

Alison opened her mouth to say something but CeCe interrupted her, "I said no arguments Alison." CeCe hardly ever used her full name so she decided not to try to argue, plus she was too drained emotionally and physically any way.

After sleeping for almost 24 hours and having her fill of room service Alison decided she needed to go see Emily.

She made it to the back of Emily's house at about 2 am and all the lights were out. Everyone seems to be a sleep. She started to climb up the side of the house to Emily's second storey window. She had climbed in and out of this window some many times that it all came back to her like it was yesterday. _Now hopefully Em still keeps her window unlocked… success!_ She is able to easy the window open with minimal noise. As she crawls across Emily's window seat and stands up, Emily stirs and sits up.

"Alison?" Emily asks still half a sleep.

"Emily... You have no idea how much I've missed you." Alison says with a huge smile and a slight laugh to her voice as she moves closer to Emily's bed. It was so good to see Emily.

"Missed me? I've been here the whole time. You're the one that's been gone." Emily answers with disdain in her voice.

"Please don't be mad." Alison implores her face falling, sadness in her eyes.

"You chose this. You chose this for you; you chose this for us..." Emily says angrily, Alison didn't even give Emily a chance to talk her out of leaving in the first place; Alison made that choice on her own.

"I know you're upset. I know I hurt you the most. But I want to explain." Alison tells Emily blinking back the tears that threaten to fall.

"But you can't." Emily counters with rage

"But I can." Alison says as she sits down on the bed across from Emily. "I have to. I owe that to you. You have no idea what I've been through." The tears still trying to escape Alison's eyes she searches Emily's beautiful brown eyes for understanding.

"You're right, I don't. And you have no idea what we've been through, either." Emily lashes out in irritation. Alison has no idea the battles Emily's endured during her absence.

"I saved your life. Twice. I risked everything for you." Alison wills Emily to understand all that she has done to help her.

"You destroyed me, okay?! I thought you were dead!" Emily says grief constricting her voice slightly.

"But I'm not. Aren't you glad that I'm not?" Alison asks with sadness in her voice, hoping that at least some part of Emily was glad she was back."

Emily's face is covered in confusion and then she is at war with herself. Alison can't bear to see which side wins.

Alison looks down and sees her journal open and sitting on Emily's bed.

"I remember writing this." Alison pushes her hair behind her ear and looks at Emily, blue eyes meet brown.

"You and me... at the kissing rock." Emily's features soften slightly as Alison continues.

"I thought I was being smart, locking it all up in a journal." Alison says as she flips through the pages of her journal.

"But they took everything, didn't they?" She says as she closes the journal and sets it back on Emily's bed.

"Who, Ali? Who took everything? Who's after you?" Emily asks with concern the cute little dimple popping out above her left eyebrow, Alison always thought that was so adorable.

"I don't know."Alison tells Emily as Emily searches her eyes. She's pretty sure Ezra's working for someone, he isn't the mastermind. No someone else is pulling the strings, but who?

"I bet you're wondering which one's real... the girl in front of you or the one who wrote that. So am I." That's as close as Alison could come to admitting to Emily that she had feelings for her.

"That's why I need you." Alison says with tears threatening to fall yet again.

"You always saw the best version of me... the person I want to be." Alison truly meant it; she did want to be the person Emily saw her as.

"I don't see that anymore." Emily says her face hardening again.

Alison can feel her heart breaking a little more, she looks down in sadness. Something on Emily's wrist caught her eye. "You still wear it." She says reaching out and lightly touching Emily's arm, enjoying the contact of her skin, she grabs her wrist with both hands.

"I better go Alison says quickly before the tears start flowing that she's been holding back" Alison rises from the bed and crawls back out the window quickly before Emily can say anything else that could break her.

Emily turns around for what she thought was just a split second and when she faces where Alison was sitting, she's gone!

Emily stands up and walks over to her jewelry box and puts the bracelet back in its spot. She turns and heads back to lay down feeling drained from all the emotions of seeing Alison.

As Alison's feet hit the ground a silent sob rips through her body as tears cascade down her face again. She decided it was time to return to the Inn for awhile.

CeCe decided it was time to test Emily's feelings for Ali. She'd followed Alison after she got a call that she had checked out a day early from the hotel. CeCe had a feeling she knew where Ali was going.

Her suspicions were true when she saw Alison climbing in through Americano's bedroom window. She decided to hide in the shadows and wait to see what happens.

Not too much later Alison hit the ground hard landing on her feet. CeCe could see the anguish on her face as she kneeled on the ground and sobbed soundlessly. Ali stood up wiping her eyes with back of her hand and took off towards the street.

CeCe waited a few hours and snuck into Emily's room. She found a small notepad and using her best Alison writing wrote:

I want to come home.

Meet me at our spot.

She knew that if Emily still cared, even a little for Alison then she would come. CeCe knew that Alison and Emily meet at the kissing rock several times to be together and talk just the two of them. Alison had confided it in CeCe during their many meetings at the dinner,

CeCe hide in the surrounding woods where she could see the kissing rock and not be seen, she didn't have to wait too long though. She saw Emily making her way to the kissing rock looking around.

Emily sat down on the rock and as she was adjusting her body to a comfortable position, she had a little smile play across her face. She bent over the side of the rock and ran her finger over the spray paint heart with EF + AD. CeCe could see the love and reverence that Emily still had for Ali by the way she touched their initials. Emily still loved Alison

 **I hope you all like the parts with CeCe, I always felt like she would be super protective of Ali.**


	9. Chapter 8

**I hope you all enjoy this chapter, I tried to really dig into Ali and Emily's feelings. If you enjoy this story and would like to read more please, please review. Thanks and enjoy!**

Part 8 (The meeting)

Alison pushes the door to the inn open; she feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight on end. She feels the presence of some one right behind her. All the sudden a hand clamps down over face with a rag with some kind of strong odor on it, Alison held what little breath she had in her lungs and stomped as hard as she could on the inseam of the dark figures foot. As the person stumbled back Alison swung her arm hard and hit the hooded figure in the groin and bolted for the door.

As she was running as fast as her legs would take her when she heard a rage filled scream coming from inside the inn behind her. Alison knew it was only a matter of time before they recovered and came after her. She ran for what felt like hours when she came to a rundown gas station, she went around the side of the building and pulled her hood up and leaned against the wall desperately trying to catch her breath and think what her next move should be.

She decided to call Shana and ask her to come meet her. She needed to ask her for favor even though she knew it was probably a bad idea, but she HAD to see her. If "A" had gotten a hold of her tonight she probably would never get a chance to see anyone let alone her ever again so she needed to do it now.

Shana meet Alison at a little dive bar not too far from the gas station Alison called her from. The friendly older gentleman who ran the gas station told her about the place and their reasonable priced food.

Alison was sitting in a booth in the very back with her eyes glued to the door when Shana entered. Alison caught Shana's eyes and she made her way pass the bar to the small corner both in the back.

"How are you Alison? It's been awhile." Shana asks with concern.

"Not too great, the girls lead "A" to me and I barely made it out in one piece. That bitch must have stolen my diary from one of the girls." Alison said in a hushed tone.

"Ali?!" Shana says with concern. "What can I do to help?'

"I need you to talk to Emily for me, tomorrow, tell her that they need to stop looking for me." Alison says with determination she can't risk the Emily and the girls leading "A" to her again.

"Ok?!" Shana asks with confusion. "Is that all?"

"For now, yes," Alison says as she stands up and pulls her hood up. "Oh and Shana" she says putting on her oversized sunglasses, "thanks, I'll contact you later tomorrow." She heads out the back door and disappears into the night.

The next day Alison made her way to a pay phone she had found across from the abounded house she crashed in the night before. She dials Shana's number.

"Hello Ali?" Shana answers not recognize the number but she knew who it was anyway.

"Hey Shana, how'd it go with Emily?"Alison inquired.

"Well she doesn't buy that it's you I'm talking to." Shana sighed.

"Leave it to Em to think this was a set up." Alison smiled impressed that Emily would think of that.

"She wants me to ask you something that only you and she would know…" Shana starts.

"What is that?" Alison asks with slight apprehension.

"She wants to know what you said to her that day that you pulled her out of the barn."

Alison couldn't help but smile to herself thinking back to that day. "Ok, that's easy enough."

"I told her I missed her the most. She was my favorite. Nobody loved me as much as she did. I gave her a choice, to stay or to go with me. Before I left, I kissed her."

"Also," Alison add before letting Shana go, "tell her I want to meet her tonight."

"There is an abandoned factory not far from downtown Rosewood I want you to take her to please, Shana." Alison said hoping Shana would do this for her, she needed to see Emily.

"Ok Ali, I will get her there, promise."

Alison was nervous when she entered the factory. She was pacing nervously around trying to figure out what she was going to say when she saw Emily. Shana was supposed to bring Emily to her in less than an hour and her mind was racing a mile a minute. She decided to look around the factory, just in case she needed to have an alternate escape route and to calm herself down slightly.

Emily stood in front of her mirror looking herself over, a sudden wave of nerves crashes over her. She heads back to her closet and changes her jacket for the 3rd time. She wants everything to be perfect when she sees Alison. She pulls the jacket on and fixes her hair letting her natural curls cascade over her shoulder. _Not bad._ She thinks to herself, as she grabs her purse and digs out her lipstick, applying it to her bottom lips and bloating it together with her top lip. She gives herself one more once over before she leaves her room to meet Shana at the Brew.

Alison's pacing is interrupted by the sound of a door opening and closing. She sees Emily making her way to the middle of the room and Alison sneaks out of the small area she'd been pacing in.

Emily gasps as she turns around as sees Alison standing there in front of her as beautiful as ever. Her golden hair falling in natural curls, Emily wanted to tangle her fingers in her gorgeous hair and kiss her beautiful full heart-shape lips. _Focus Fields, not the time._ Alison smiles as she looks Emily up and down, how can Emily be even more breath taking than the last time Alison say her.

"It's really you." Emily says with a nervous giggle, hardly believing Alison is standing in front of her.

"Yeah," Alison breathes out with a genuine smile that made her beautiful sapphire eyes sparkle. "I've missed you so much"

She says as Emily pulls her in for a hug." You have no idea how hard it's been to stay away." She says reveling in the feel of holding Emily in her arms, tears of joy in her eyes.

"Then don't anymore." Emily says squeezing Alison and breaking the hug. She holds onto Alison's upper arms not wanting to break contact with her. "Let me help you." She begs her chocolate eyes staring into Alison's deep blues. "We can go to the police."

"Or your parents…"

Alison interrupts Emily with "I wish I could. I just don't know who I can trust."

"You can trust me." Emily says willing Alison to give her a chance; she can't lose Alison, not after getting to hold her even for a few minutes. "Spencer, Aria..."

"I know I can trust you, Em. I'm just not sure about them." Alison says with regret, she just doesn't know who else she can trust at this point.

"Why?" Emily doesn't understand why she can't trust Hanna, Aria and Spencer; they have always been there for each other.

"You never stopped caring about me, did you?" Alison searches Emily's face tears threatening to fall. All she can see is love reflected in Emily's eyes, love she would never be worthy of.

"Even after everything I put you through." Alison swallows down the lump forming in her throat.

"You don't know how much I regret hurting you." Alison tells Emily her voice thick with regret and emotion. Emily looks at Alison waiting her to finish.

"If I could do it all over again, things would be so different." If she wasn't such a coward and stuck around maybe she could've given being with Emily a try.

"Who's doing this to you?" Emily questions rubbing her hands up and down Alison's arms trying to comfort her. "Tell me who you're hiding from." Emily asks willing Alison to confide in her.

"I thought I knew. But I was wrong." Alison admits sadly, she's not sure of anything anymore.

"That's why I need you, Em. Help me find "A" so I can come home."

"So that's who you think tried to kill you?" Emily asks dread lacing her words.

They both hear a clang and jump looking around.

"What was that?" Alison asks terror rising in her voice.

"Who's out there?" She asks as she and Emily scan the factory.

"Did you tell anyone about this?" Alison asks grabbing Emily's hand a look of betrayal crossing her features.

Emily's heart breaks seeing Alison's face fall.

Another sound like a chain link fence gets Emily attention and she turns away from Alison.

Alison drops Emily's hand and takes the chance to run away to the elevator she found early when she was waiting for Em. She explored the factory for a bit while she waited and found a small office on the 2nd floor with a fire escape.

"Ali, wait!" Emily begs as she runs toward the elevator. Alison looks at her with tears streaming down her face betrayal evident on her face.

"Ali! Please!" Emily ponds on the doors, pushing the elevator buttons frantically, anxious to explain to Alison why she told Spencer about their meeting.

"Open up, Ali! Ali, open up, please! I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please Ali," Alison hears the heartache in Emily's voice as she exits the elevator heading for the window to get to the fire escape.

"I just want to talk." Emily pleads growing more desperate. Alison stops on the fire escape fighting the desire to run back down to Emily and hold her in her arms and tell her they could figure this out. Alison shakes the thought away and lowers the ladder down and descends quickly down it, taking off into the woods.

The elevator door final opens and it is empty. Emily feels destroyed and then rage fills her as she turns to look at Spencer. Emily stalks toward Spencer fury evident in her demeanor.

Together they searched the factory trying to figure out where Alison disappeared to.

"I don't understand." Spencer shakes her head

"How could she just disappear like that?" Confusion emanated from Spencer's voice.

"She didn't disappear. You scared her away." Emily was about to lose it. Spencer can't believe that Emily is so angry.

"I can't believe you followed me here."

"I thought you were putting yourself in danger." Spencer wills Emily to understand, she just wanted to protect her.

"Yeah, well, you thought wrong." Emily retorted fighting the urge to curse Spencer out.

Spencer feels horrible; she doesn't know what to do to fix these. "I know. I'm sorry." She hopes apologizing might help calm Emily down long enough to hear her out. She tries taking a step towards Emily.

"You're gonna have to work harder than that." Holding back tears Emily continues "I betrayed Alison. She's never gonna reach out to me again."

"She's still playing games with us." Spencer states, thinking back to all the stunts Alison's pulled over the years.

"What are you talking about?" Emily can't believe Spencer would be so cruel and think Ali was playing them.

"Ali sucked you back in." Spencer looks Emily dead in the eye but Emily shakes hear head.

"She knew you were pulling away and that's why she picked you. She wanted to make you feel special so that you wouldn't give up on her." Spencer says with conviction.

"That's sick" Emily spits out venomously at Spencer, trying her hardest not to slap her across the face.

"No. It's brilliant" Spencer explains almost laughing, how did Emily not see it? Alison was a lot more conniving then she gave her credit for.

"It wasn't like that, okay? She was different tonight. She was sincere." Emily was really losing her temper now. Alison told her how much she missed her and how if she'd stayed how things would have been different. Ali was finally the person Emily always used to see when it was just her and Alison, when Ali let her walls down.

"She can trust you, but she's not sure about the rest of us?" Don't you get it? She's trying to divide us." Now Spencer was getting angry, how could Emily be so naive?

"She wouldn't do that." Emily pleads, Spencer had to understand, she needs Ali to come home, and she can't stand to lose her again.

"Wouldn't she?" Spencer asks cynically, _after all Alison is a master manipulator_.

As Spencer questioned her, something dawned on Emily "Wait. You were listening? This whole time?" It hurts Emily to think that Spencer had been hiding and listening to her and Ali's private conversation.

"We can't let her come between us." Spencer replies with anguish taking a tentative step toward Emily.

"I'd say you're doing a great job of that all on your own." Emily replies in anger and starts inching toward Spencer.

"I'm sorry." Spencer reaches for Emily to grab her arms.

Emily raises her arms up breaking Spencer's grip and screams, "Don't!" Emily pushes past Spencer tears of anger running hot down her face.


	10. Chapter 9

**As always please review and thank you to** **Dragoncila for the kind words. Please enjoy!**

Alison had to get out of town; she was no longer safe in Rosewood or anywhere close to it. It was time for her to call Shana again, she need her to do a huge favor for her.

"I need it. There's no other choice." Alison tells Shana with desperation.

"You told me to stay away from her at all cost Ali." Shana was confused, Alison had made it clear to stay away from Mrs. DiLaurentis.

"I know I told you to avoid her but you'll have to get in touch with her." Alison had no other choice her options were running low.

"And when you do..." Alison warned.

"I know Ali, I know I can't tell her anything about you, I just tell her I missed seeing her." Shana replies before Alison can say anything.

"Yes. That is exactly what you say, nothing more. She can't know yet." It was too risky to tell her mom just yet.

"Do you think you can get to it?" Alison asks nervously.

"I'll be careful." Shana tries to reassure Alison.

"I'll call you back on this phone and tell you where to take it" Alison found a small run down motel she was staying at until she could meet with Shana.

"Your friends just walked in." Shana said with concern, she didn't want the third degree. Especially from Emily, she could be slightly terrifying.

"Shana? Shana, tell me you can get it" Alison asked in desperation.

"I have to go." Shana tells Alison before she closes her cell phone.

Shana tried to get what Alison asked for but Mrs. DiLaurentis was so thrilled to see her that she couldn't get away long enough to find it. Shana couldn't bear to break Mrs. D's heart; she was so lonely and devastated, so she visited with her for awhile and left, Time for plan B.

Shana pulled up in front of Emily's house and sat for a minute getting up her nerve.

 _Okay let's do this!_ Shana thought to herself as she headed to the Field's front door and rang the door bell. _Just breathe._ Shana could hear footsteps coming down the stairs and she saw Emily.

Emily looked out her front door and turned on the porch light. Surprised covered her face as she pulled open the door.

"I need your help." Shana said with her arms folded in front of her in a defensive stance.

"Okay. How can I help you?" Emily inquired with uncertainty.

"Not here." Shana looked around apprehensively. "Inside."

It took Emily a moment to process but she moved out of the doorway to let Shana in. Emily led Shana up to her room so they could talk in private.

"If you want my help, you're gonna have to answer some questions." Emily tells Shana opening her bedroom door to allow Shana to enter,

"I'm an open book." Shana told her as she looks around Emily's room.

Emily closed her door behind her as she followed Shana in.

"So what about Paige? Was that on purpose? Did you date her to get to me?" Emily asks with slight loathing in her voice.

"When I met her at swim camp, I didn't know you were the one she was still mooning over. When I got to town, I put it all together." Shana answered while playing with a paperweight from Emily's desk.

"You've always acted like you want to come between us." Emily ask still upset but also slightly curious.

"I saw a button and I pushed. It let me know what I needed to know." Shana replies setting the paperweight back on Emily's desk.

"Which is?" Emily questions with curiosity mixed with slight annoyance.

"You're loyal, fiercely protective, emotional but not a fool. Just like Alison said." Shana admits with respect.

"Great. So you were spying on us too?" Emily was getting feed up with everyone spying on her, first "A" now Shana.

"For Alison?" Of course Alison would have someone spy on her when she couldn't.

"Not spying, just taking a look around, trying to get to know you." Shana said with sincerity.

"Is that what you were doing in Wren's apartment? Trying to get to know him?" Emily says with sarcasm.

"He placed an ad, hired me to ship and pack some boxes in a hurry. When he found out I go to Rosewood High, he asked me to be discreet." Shana said as she looked through the nick-knacks on Emily's shelf. She picked up the snow globe Alison had given her

"Be careful with that. It's...its" Emily starts but Shana interrupts.

"Belonged to Alison's grandmother, Ali said it was a gift for someone special. Wouldn't tell me who. Now I know." Shana finishes for Emily while setting it carefully back

"Emily, I saw you and Hanna today at Alison's house." Shana says as she walked to stand in front of Emily.

"I figure you're probably going to ask about that too, so why don't we just lay it on the table?"

"Okay." Emily answers as nicely as she can.

"Could you sit? You're making me nervous." Shana asks turning to look at Emily's bed. Emily was slightly intimidating this close up. Emily folds her arms in front of her defiantly and didn't move.

Shana rolls her eyes and continued, "I was trying to get something for Alison, but I never got a chance. Her mother was so happy to see me; I never got a second alone."

"Does she know Ali's still alive?" Emily inquired scanning Shana eyes.

"No." Shana said simply.

"I mean are you sure you didn't tell her?" Emily asks a little more forcefully.

"Alison doesn't trust anyone but you." Shana says with passion.

"What were you there to get?" Emily asks intrigued.

"That's where you come in."

"There's a poster in Alison's room, some French thing with twins." Shana explains, but Emily knows exactly what poster she's talking about, Ali always loved Paris!

"I need you to get the envelope that's behind it, Alison desperately needs it, can you do it?"

Emily thought for a minute, she needed a good excuse to be in Ali's room. "I got it." She told Shana as much as herself, she'd tell Mrs. D she lost one of her mom's earrings while she was staying there.

Once Emily was out of the DiLaurentis house she went straight to work and called Shana. She didn't want to walk around with that much cash for too long.

Emily pulls out her cell and calls Shana.

Shana looks at her phone and picks it up, "when can you be here?"

"I can't come to you, okay? I'm at work. What time does your meet start?" Emily tells her staring at the envelope.

"Half an hour. Do you have it?" Shana asks with concern.

"It's money, Shana, a lot, and a piece of paper." Emily says concern edging her voice.

"You weren't supposed to look." Shana said with annoyance.

"Well, I did. Where does it lead?" Emily asks starting to become annoyed as well.

"Look, we don't have time for this. Do you have a locker, some place it will be safe?" Alison would kill Shana if she lost that money.

"No, I mean we keep our stuff under the counter." Emily looks around.

"Don't just leave it sitting around for someone to steal." Shana didn't have time for this she needed to warm up for the meet.

"Where am I supposed to hide five grand?" Emily asks frantically.

"I'm gonna come by after my meet." Emily hears the line go dead.

Emily puts the money in her apron and starts looking around the Brew for a good place to hide it. She grabs a bag of coffee beans and stoops behind the counter. She folds the envelope and stuffs it down in the bag, she puts it under the counter with her things. _That'll have to do for now._

Emily waited till about an hour after close but Shana was a no show, she promised Hanna and Spencer she'd meet them after work. Reluctantly she got in her car and drove to Spencer's.

************  
Alison returned to the pay phone she had called Shana on earlier and dialed the number. The phone rang over and over again for what felt like hours.

Finally Alison heard the familiar click of someone answering. "Alison?" Shana ask sitting up in her car.

"Hi. Shana, do you have it?" Alison said with some relief.

"I was... I'm..." Shana said still disoriented.

"Shana, do you have it? Do you have the money? Shana?" Alison asks slight worry creeping in her voice.

"I don't... I'm not sure where I am." Shana looks around trying to figure out where she is and what happened. Shana turns her headlights on and gasps. Someone one had painted "Don't" in red onto the Rosewood sign that said come back soon.

"Shana?" Alison says starting to get worried.

"I have to hang up now." Shana answers with terror in her voice.

"What do you mean?" Alison asks confused.

"I'm sorry I have to go." Shana says with regret.

"Shana, what happened to the money?" Alison asks trying not to panic.

"I don't have it." Shana admits as she starts her car.

"What am I supposed to do?" Alison asks feeling the tears starting to come.

"I have to go." Shana hangs up and takes the battery out of her phone and tosses both out her window. Shana takes the rode leading out of Rosewood without looking back.

Alison hangs up the phone and digs in her purse for her wallet. She's down to $42, as she put it back in her wallet she pulled out a picture of her and the girls from a few summers ago. As the tears were starting to fall she put everything in her wallet. She headed for the bus station and bought a ticket with some of the last of her money to Wallingford.


	11. Chapter 10

**As always I have so enjoyed writing this, so please leave me a quick review or if you have any suggestions feel free to let me know. Thank you to the guest reviewer, I plan to update at least once a week if possible. Enjoy!**

Alison tried one last ditch effort to get hold of Shana, she called her parents in Georgia from a burner phone she bought for emergencies. Shana picks up the phone, "Ali I am so sorry, I freaked out and had to get out of town…"

Alison interrupts her, "Shana, I should've never asked so much of you and I'm sorry. You have already done a great so much for me and I can never thank you enough."

Shana felt so terrible for leaving Alison without helping her, "Emily has the money, I tried to get it myself but I couldn't. I can tell her where to send it to you."

Alison feels as if weight has been lifted off her shoulders. "I am in Wallingford; I will open a PO Box under A.D. Incorporated. I will call you with the address to give to Em. Also from then on I will contact you through the email I set up. Remember the one I sent you to use?"

"No problem Alison, I remember it and, I still have her number." Shana knew it was the least she could do all things considered.

"Thank you and Shanna….be careful."

Alison went to the post office to pick up the package Emily sent her; she opened the envelope hoping to see some kind of note or something from Em. To her disappointment all that fell out was the envelope with the money, she knew Emily didn't owe her anything, but she was hoping Em still cared. _You don't deserve her! You don't deserve anyone's love._ Alison's doubts were rearing their ugly heads.

Alison made up her mind; she was going to go to New York. She headed to the nearest bus station and bought herself a one-way ticket. Her bus left later that evening so she decided to get something to eat and grab a few supplies.

Alison was able to get a seat mostly hidden at the back of the bus, so she was able to sleep most of the two hours. The bus was relatively empty save for an older couple and a small family, so Alison felt pretty safe to try and get some rest. She couldn't remember the last time she slept. When Alison woke up she noticed the older couple was sitting next to her.

The little lady said to her, "You were mumbling in your sleep and crying dear, so my husband and I decided to come sit next you." She was holding Alison's hand and lightly stroking it.

Alison could hardly believe this women was being so kind to her. "Thank you!" She said with a genuine smile.

The little lady returned the smile her amber colored eyes twinkle. She dug in the cooler sitting next her and pulled out a sandwich and a bottle of water. "Here you are dear; you look like you could use something to eat."

"I couldn't take your food…." Alison started to say when the older gentleman smiled at her.

He told her in a deep voice, "I have plenty, Peggy always packs extra, I have low blood sugar so she feeds me constantly." He said with a warm smile.

"We have a granddaughter about your age, I hope if she were out somewhere alone someone would do the same for her."

"Thank you so much." Alison had tears in her eyes, she had never had anyone besides Emily be nice to her just because. Everyone else always expected something from her.

"Next stop New York, New York!" Alison heard over the speakers of the bus.

"That's me." Alison said with a grateful smile to the couple.

"Do you have some where to stay dear?" The sweet lady asks with concern in her eyes.

"I have a friend who lives in town and owns his own café." Alison told her as the bus came to a stop.

"Okay dear be safe out there." The lady said standing and giving Alison a hug.

Alison retuned the hug and thanked the couple as she picked up her stuff and made it to the front of the bus.

Thankful the bus station was just a few blocks from where Alison was planning on staying, The Mockingbird Sings Café. The last time she was in New York she spent a lot of time at the jazz café and became friends with owners, she even worked there on and off. She every so often watched the place from time to time when they went out of town.

She was so thrilled to see that they were open; she went in at sat at her usual table and ordered some coffee. When the serve returned she asks him, "Is Joe or Trish in?"

"You're in luck; they are leaving early this week for business. Today's the last day Joe will be in." He smiles at Alison. "Who should I say is asking?"

Alison looked around the cafe vigilantly to make sure no one was listening in. "Tell him Ali's here, please." She said forcing a small smile.

"Will do," He said pouring her some more coffee.

A few seconds later a man in his late 30s dressed in a 1920s suit in true jazz style came over to Alison's table with a look of shock on his face.

"Ali, it's been too long! How is my best server doing?" A large smile breaking across his face.

"I've been better," she tells him honestly, "I kind of need a place to crash for a while."

"Perfect timing sweetie, Trish and I have some business in Cali and we wanted to take a small vacation as well. We would be gone for about a month to a month and a half. How would you like to stay in the apartment and help in the café from time to time?" Joes asked he knew he could trust her because she had already watched the place a few times for a week or so here and there.

"That would be great Joe, thanks so much." Alison said with relief.

"I better get back to it; I have to get things squared away before we can leave." Joe said as he got up, "Oh, also tell Trevor the coffee and anything else you'd like is on the house!" He said patting Alison softly on the shoulder as he passed.

"Thanks Joe!" She said with a slight chuckle in voice, she hadn't had to pay for anything at the café since the first time she came in.

At first all she wanted to do was lie on the middle of the floor in the living room of the apartment and cry. She'd lay there for hours and replayed all the horrible things she'd ever said or done on a loop in her head. The ones that ate at her the most were the things she had done to Emily, sweet, loving, and trusting Em. She had kept all her true feelings for Emily locked up in a journal that she still carries everywhere with her in her purse. What Em didn't know was that Alison cared deeply for her; she may not exactly know what her feelings meant yet but she unquestionably held apart of Alison's heart. At first Trevor would come up and knock on the door, he'd stand outside the door and she could hear him asking, "Ali are you okay in there, it's been a while?"

"Go away!" She would yell at him. Eventually he gave up and stop coming up.

She kept falling into a deep abyss and kept rereading old entries from her journal. _Why did she try to push Emily away so much? Because, she was a horrible person not deserving of love or sympathy of any kind, she was a monster_. That day in the school library when she read that quote to Emily some part of her had meant ever word of it and that had scared her. She would never deserve some one as amazing and wonderful as Emily Fields. She about melted when Emily had timidly kissed her quickly on the lips, she had never felt anything stir in her like that before.

Finally one day about two weeks after wishing she had died, she made herself get up and go downstairs. When she came down Trevor was waiting for her with a slight smile on his face.

"Good to see you are alive, Ali; I was about to bust down that door and drag your ass down here kicking and screaming!"

Alison couldn't help herself she had to smile at the image of this skinny, five foot nothing blonde haired, blue eyed boy dragging her down the stairs kicking and screaming.

Over the next few weeks Alison and Trevor became really close friends. They talked about their mutual attraction to boys. She also told him about Em, for the first time she actual felt comfortable confiding her secret attraction to Emily to someone besides CeCe. It was nice to be around someone who knew Ali and not the bitch Alison DiLaurentis. She still had her firer temper and mouth but she was more careful where she aimed them at now.

"So you're bi then?" Trevor asks with interest.

Alison thought about it for a second before she answered, she had never really been attracted to any other girls besides Em. "Not really." She states.

"Okay?!" Trevor asks with a questioning look. "If you like girls too then I hate to break it to ya sweetie, YOU ARE BI!" He says matter-of-factly.

"Don't get catty with me." Alison feigns irritation, rolling her eyes at Trevor. "I've only ever been attracted to Emily." She tells him honestly.

"Oh, I see so she's kinda like a girl crush then, huh?!" Trevor teases Ali.

"I guess you could say that." Alison admitted a slight blush creeping up in her cheeks.

Trevor looked at her seriously, "You're in love with her, aren't you?"

"I think I could be." Alison states honestly. Trevor was the first person she admitted that too, CeCe had figured it out but she didn't really confirm or deny it. Trevor turned out to be a great guy to hang out with and they spent a lot of time together.

Joe called to check in every once in awhile to make sure the place was still standing. He decided that since things were going so well he would stay for the whole six weeks for some much need vacation time.

After awhile things were going pretty well for Alison, she was starting to get in a routine and has slowly stopped focusing so much on Emily. Trevor was like her new best friend, they confided in each other almost everything.

Life seem to be calming down, that was till one day she heard the familiar sound of a notification on her phone. _What is Shana emailing me for?_ She hadn't heard anything from Shana since she called her in Georgia. She pulled out her phone with concern and opened the email.

 **Ali, call me. We need to talk.**

 **You're in danger.**

 **-Em**

All the old feelings and wounds burst open inside her heart again.

Alison dialed Emily's number from memory; she would always remember Emily's number even if she forgot everything else.

"Hello?" Emily asks with unease in her voice.

"How did you find me?" Alison asks with a bit of panic.

"Okay, Ali, the police know that it's not you," Emily states cutting right to the chase.

"What?" Alison asks with confusion, what was Emily talking about.

"Buried. They know that's not you in there". Emily explains.

"Alison, does your mother know?" She asks with concern.

"No, don't speak to my mother, okay? She can't know anything." Alison panics at the thought of more people knowing and possible leading "A" to her.

"Look, we want to help you, but you need to tell us what happened that night." Emily states just wanting some or any answers at this point.

"Then you need to come here. And you need to hurry." Alison knew she would have to leave again soon, she was too easy to trace back to New York.


	12. Chapter 11

**Thank you to all who continue to read this story, I absolutely love writing it. If you could be so kind as to leave a short review I would** **gladly** **appreciate it! Please Enjoy!**

Alison called Noel after she gave the girls an address to meet her at.

Noel picked up after the second ring. "What's going on Ali? I got your tickets, the passport should be done soon too, and the money is being squared away."

"Thanks Noel, do you mind doing me one more favor please?" Alison was glad to be back in touch with Noel, he had been MIA for a few months. He had been seeing Mona for awhile and sort of became wrapped up in that and partying.

He felt bad for not being there as much as he should have been, "Sure, what do you need me to do?"

Alison gave him the address to pick up the girls at. She also gave him directions to The Mockingbird café.

"I have some things I need to take care of before I see the girls; I'll call you when I get back."

"And Noel," Alison add before hanging up "be careful."

"Always am." He said with a bit of snicker in his voice, Alison was like the little sister he never had.

After the café closed for the night Alison headed to check her PO Box she set up at the post office across the street one last time before the girls got there. CeCe had been sending her things every so often such as money and postcards from different places. She knew something was up with CeCe but Alison had enough on her plate right now so she didn't push it.

As the girls waited for Alison in the apartment, Spencer nervously played with the Newton's cradle on the coffee table. It kept make aloud CLANK sounds that was quite unnerving. Aria can't take it much longer, final she snaps at her, "Spencer!"

"What?" Spencer asks in a trance staring as the ball bearings smack into each other. She looks at Aria and Aria pointedly stares at the offending object. Spencer grabs them to stop there motion with an apologetic look.

Noel's phone breaks the tension.

Before she headed back to the café she called Noel.

"Hey Noel, can you meet at the delivery door?"

"Yeah." Noel says to Ali.

"Stay here." He tells the girls looking at each of them.

"I'll be right back." He says as he opens the door and heads down to meet Alison.

After Noel is gone the girls start to get nervous.

"I cannot believe we let Noel bring us here." Aria looks at Spencer with apprehension.

Spencer lets at a long sigh.

"Do we think she's even coming?" Hanna asks slightly irritated.

"I don't know, when I saw it was him instead of Ali, I thought for sure this was a trap." Spencer said second guessing their decision to trust Noel.

"Probably is and we're just sitting here like geese." Hanna said matter-of-factly.

" Ducks." Spencer corrected Hanna.

"What?" Hanna asks in annoyance.

"You sit like lame ducks. Not geese." Spencer quips back.

"OK, well, whatever, they both quack." Hanna answers rolling her eyes, Spencer always had to correct her.

"Geese honk." Spencer couldn't resist adding.

"Why would Ali trust Noel Kahn?" Emily pipes up trying to change topics.

Just then they hear a familiar voice, "Because he has secrets, too." Alison says opening the door, all four girls stand up a look of relief crossing each of their faces.

Hanna's the first to speak, "I want to hug you and slap you at the same time." Leave it to Hanna to be brutally honest.

Alison closes the door and tentatively enters, "I could use a hug." Alison says with a slight giggle, Hanna embraces her in a tight hug. After letting go she gives her a small smile and she walks over to Emily and Em pulls her into a hug trying to hold back tears of joy. Alison doesn't want to let go, she has missed Emily's warmth and how they seem to just fit. As she reluctantly pulls away Aria lets out a small chuckle of relief and hugs Alison tightly as well. As she pulls away from Aria, she is drawn to Emily again, she grabs her hand with both of hers for comfort. She sees Spencer avoiding eye contact with her. "I'm glad you're here, Spencer."

"Why?" Spencer asks clearly confused. "I'm the one you can't trust." She says clearly hurt.

"I need your help." Emily looks into Ali's cerulean eyes, her brown eyes swimming with concern.

"Now that the cops know that I'm not the one they buried, they're gonna start looking again." Alison squeezes Emily's hand for reassurance.

"And until I know who "A" is, I can't come home." Emily's heart breaks at that, being here with Alison was bring up so many feelings, she couldn't go back to Rosewood without her.

"Ali, we think your mom's the one who stole the game from Mona. We think she's 'A.'" Hanna states nervously avoiding eye contact with Alison.

Alison's expression doesn't seem to change much. "You don't seem surprised." Emily searches Alison's face for some hint of emotion; Alison's still cling to Emily's hand like her life depends on it.

"It's complicated, Em" Alison says staring into Emily's warm chocolate eyes.

"I've never figured out the right way to tell you what you need to know." She says looking away from Emily so she can focus; it's too easy to get lost in those eyes.

"I've never been able to say the words out loud." Alison drops Emily's hand and misses the contact almost immediately.

"Why don't you start at the beginning?" Spencer asks trying not to be too pushy.

Alison walks over to the chair across from the L-shaped couch and sits down. The girls follow suit and sit on the couch. Alison starts uncertainly, "I'm ready to tell you guys everything. But if we can't figure it out tonight, I'm gonna have to disappear again" Fear covers Emily's features as Alison continues, "and this time it's gonna be for good." Emily can feel her heart starting to shatter all over again.

Alison tells them about the night's events and how she had slowly checked names off her list of suspects. She also told them how she had slipped a sedative into the drink she had given them to eliminate them as suspects as well.

Noel dropped by again, "You've got cash, a passport, and a plane ticket. We need to leave for the airport in an hour."

"Thank you." Alison said looking Noel in the eye. She was so grateful for all his help.

"You guys, we can't let her leave, again." Hanna said looking at the other girls with distress.

"Then we have to put together the pieces." Spencer starts but is cut off.

"Tonight."Emily states looking at Alison as she comes back over towards table they were sitting at.

"Ali... look I understand we're here to figure out who "A" is, but I need to know if Ezra told me the truth." Aria asks needing to know the truth.

"Ezra seemed to get that everything I said was made-up stuff. But he believed me when I said that CeCe and I were roommates at U-Penn." Alison starts telling them all about how she met Ezra and how she reminded him of Holly Golightly, he wanted to write a book about her. She told them she was able to cross Ezra off the list as well. Then she moved on to Ian as her next suspect, but when she confronted him he seemed more freaked out about it than she was.

Spencer needed to know if she had tried to hurt Alison that night and had mistakenly killed the girl that was in Alison's grave. "I... I remember bits and pieces. But I'm not sure what's real and what I've made up."

"I was pushing all summer for you to tell Melissa about Ian because I wanted to break them up. I thought that Ian actually liked me and that Melissa was in the way." Alison said with disdain dripping in her voice.

"And we got in a fight in the kitchen." Spencer paused intently looking at Alison before continuing, "And it got ugly"

"It was like you bottled up every fight we ever had and popped your top that night." Alison says holding back tears, emotion thick in her throat.

"I thought that you were still threatening me. I told you I would tell Melissa the truth." Spencer states, starting to tear up a little as well.

"And I told you to forget it, but you were holding on to it like a dog with a bone." Alison fills Spencer on the rest of what happened that night ** _. How Spencer had followed her back to Spencer's house, and grabbed a shovel and tried to swing it at Alison but lost her balance and dropped a bottle of pills. Alison also told her that she promised she wouldn't tell anyone about the pills but she needed to make not mix alcohol with amphetamines. She sent Spencer back to the barn to sleep it off._**

 ** _Last Alison confronted Aria father, Byron to tie up all loose ends, even though she was sure it wasn't him and then she returned to the barn to see if "A" sent anymore texts. As the night wore on with no messages Alison returned home. When she got to her front yard her mom was standing at the window with terror in her eyes. Someone hit her in the back of the head and that was the last thing she remembered._**

"It wasn't you, Spencer. You were sound asleep when I left the barn." Alison's eyes shined with unshed tears.

Spencer refutes with tears starting to come, "Yeah, but... That doesn't mean I didn't hurt the other girl."

"You're not listening, Spence. You went back to sleep." Aria implores Spencer to listen.

"I didn't do it." Spencer whispers tears streaming down her face. Emily puts her arm around Spencer and Spencer puts her head on Em's shoulder.

"But your mom saw who did." Emily states tears showing in her eyes as well while looking at Ali.

Alison looks away tears threatening to fall any second. "Why didn't she tell the police?" Hanna asks fighting back tears as well.

Alison lets the tears fall as she goes on, "I could hear her talking to someone." More tears started falling, "She thought I was dead." Emily looks heartbroken; Spencer covers her mouth in shock as Alison tells them about being buried alive by her own mother. "I was trying to tell her I was alive." Alison continues with grief strangle her voice, "I was screaming. Can't you see me? Can't you see me breathing? Look at me!" Aria looks at Alison with tears streaming down her face, she looks over at Hanna who has her arm wrapped around Emily's arm and Spencer who is fighting back tears. Alison continues, "But the words didn't come out. I couldn't move."

"Ali, we're here for you." Aria tells her reaching for her and putting her hand reassuringly on her shoulder. "All right, we're all here for you."

Emily piped up with, "And we always have been. You should have told us. You didn't have to keep this a secret." Emily wanted to hold Ali until the pain stopped.

"God, I can't believe your mom buried you alive." Hanna said visibly shaken.

"Are you sure she thought you were dead?" Arai ask rubbing Alison's arm comfortingly.

"She was hysterical. She kept saying the same thing, over and over again. What have you done?" Aria moved her hand from Alison's shoulder to hold her hands. "What have you done?"

"Who was she talking to?" Emily asks curiously, sadness in her eyes.

"The person she's still protecting. That's why she was pointing the finger at me because she's still covering for somebody." Spencer says with realization in her voice.

"Yeah, but who?" Hanna says with uncertainty.

"Was Mrs. Grunwald telling the truth when she said she pulled you out of there?" Emily asks Ali, locking eyes with her.

"She took me to the hospital. I was so scared, so I ran." Her voice quivering as she continued.

"I didn't know where I was going. I just knew I had to go." Alison told them about how she met Mona out walking and how Mona offered to help her. She told them that Mona took her to The Lost Woods Resort and how she gave Alison the idea to fake her death and disappear. Mona helped her get some supplies and a car to help her leave town. She told them how Mona had played her all along to get her to leave.

"I don't think we're going to figure this out tonight." Spencer admits with disappointment.

"But you shouldn't leave, Ali."

"We know everything now. We can protect you." Emily urged.

"We know everything except who "A" is." Alison points out with slight aggravation.

"But if the five... if we stick together..." Aria started.

Alison interrupted Aria, "I can't go back until I figure out why my mom was willing to do that to me."

"Ali, come on, you can't leave." Hanna replies gloomily.

"Don't you want to come home?" She asks truly wondering if Alison did.

"It was surprisingly easy for me to stay gone." Alison admitted not making eye contact with any of them.

She looked at Hanna, "Until you got hurt, Hanna. I was so scared that you were going to die. It was worth the risk. When I saw you in the hospital..." Alison says grief filling her words as she continues, "When I saw what Mona did to you... I decided to stop running. I tried to keep one step ahead of "A," and I did everything I could to keep you safe."

She told them about how she was the one who had pushed Ian and saved Spencer that night at the church. She also told them that Ian wasn't dead, he escaped. She told them about the night at the lodge, she left out the parts about Shana as she knew that the girls still didn't trust her.

Emily hears a banging, "Guys, I think someone's out there." She says as she walks toward the window of the café. Alison turns off the lights and the others got up and joined Emily to look out the window; they all see a light from a flashlight or something.

"Is that Noel?" Aria asks questioningly.

They here a few bangs, then the glass shatters and a figure in a dark hood is standing there with a gun.

"Ali, run!" Emily yells putting herself between Alison and the hooded person.

Spencer tells everyone, "Go!" They all followed Alison as she ran to the stairs and up to the apartment.

"Oh, my God!" Alison says in despair.

"Lock the door!" Aria suggests with urgency in her voice.

"Call 911!" Alison says in a panic

"Noel has our phones!" Emily answers looking at Alison with desperation.

They heard more gunshots and all scream in terror.

"Fire escape! Fire escape!" Spencer yells in fear.

They all make a break for the window and up the fire escape as the figure bust down the door and runs to the window. The hooded figure slides out the window and follows them up the fire escape.

The all make it to the roof. "Hurry! Get out of here." Spencer tells them

"Oh, my God!" Emily says in terror looking for an escape.

"He's right behind us!" Spencer tells them.

"Hurry!" Emily yells again.

"It's locked!" Emily tells the girls as she tries the door on the roof. She runs to the opposite side of the roof looking for somewhere to escape to. Emily looks down into the alley below "There's no way out of here". Emily looks across the gap to the building right next door. "Do you think we can make it?"

"No!" They all shout in unison.

Just then behind them the door creaks open. They all turn to see who it is. Alison grabs onto Emily's waist for support. Aria takes a few steps toward the door and says incredulously, "Ezra?"

A door on the other side opens suddenly and the hooded figure appears. "Hey, hey! Hey." Ezra shouts to get the persons attention away from the girls, who are screaming in terror.

The figure points the gun at Ezra "Look, I know who you are. And the police are on their way." Ezra tells the hooded assailant.

The figure fires a shot right above Ezra's head trying to silence him. Then points the gun towards the girls, Spencer shields Alison.

Ezra tackles the figure trying to get the gun away. "Ezra!" Aria cries out.

The gun goes off hitting Ezra. " Oh, my God." A few of the girls weakly scream out.

During the scuffle the gun was knocked away and Hanna picked it up and Spencer yells, "Take off your mask!"

Hanna adds "Now!'

"Take it off! " Aria yells with ferocity.

The hooded figure raises their hand about to take off the mask but instead turns and jumps on the ledge of the building and leaps the gap just barely making it. They all scream "No!", as the figure pulls them self up and onto the roof.

"There's no way that's your mom." Hanna says out of breath as the figure opens the door and heads into the building.

Aria makes her way to where Ezra is standing looking at the skyline. "Ezra?" She ask with concern

"It's so beautiful." He answers sounding slightly out of it as he turns around and opens his jacket revealing a gunshot.

"No! No... "Aria screams out trying to catch Ezra as she falls and helps him lay down on the roof.

"Oh, my God. Oh, my... " Emily cries out as the girls run over to Ezra.

"Oh, my God!" Ezra!" Alison covers her mouth trying not to cry out.

" I'm sorry... " Ezra tries to say but it comes out in a whisper.

"Shhh." Aria tries to get him to save his strength. "Don't. You stay awake, do you hear me?" She demands "Don't you dare close your eyes!" Arai begs him. "No, please! Ezra!" She sobs uncontrollable.

"Somebody call for help!" Alison calls out, tears starting to fall.

"Oh, my God. Ezra! Ezra!" Aria is losing it quickly as Ezra closes his eyes.

They all start yelling in desperation for help. "Oh, my God!" Spencer cries she can't believe Ezra might die.

Down below the sound of sirens can be heard approaching the building. Emily and Spencer start yelling from the side of the roof to get the police's attention.


	13. Chapter 12

**Another long chapter, please give a quick review if you like the story. Constructive** **criticism** **is always welcome as well. Please enjoy!**

As their loading Ezra into an ambulance Alison was watching from one of the neighboring buildings on the fire escape. When the ambulance starts to drive away Alison notices the hooded figure hanging on the top of roof. Alison starts to panic; she has to tell the others about what she saw. If it wasn't for Ezra they might have all been killed, Alison at the very least, she owes it to him to keep him safe.

Alison tells the girls about seeing "A" on top of the ambulance. Spencer and Emily decide to run into a corner market for some supplies.

Spencer asks Hanna to make the call as Aria opens the burner phone and hands it her. "You know what to say, right?" "Don't stay on the line a second longer than you have to." Hanna steps away from the girls to make the call.

"It's the strongest one they had." Emily tells Alison as she hands her a bottle of pepper spray.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Emily asks with concern, locking eyes with Alison.

"Ezra just saved my life." Alison says looking at Emily and then Aria.

"And he probably saved yours, too". Alison's can't help herself she looks back at Emily's concerned face.

"Hanna's right. There's no way my mom made that jump. She's not 'A.' but Ezra knows who is." Alison knew that she had to do whatever she could to make sure Ezra was out of harm's way.

"Look, Em, the plan was to get Ali out of town tonight, but now that we know that "A's" after Ezra..." Aria tries to explain but she is cut off.

"I get that "A" wants to shut Ezra up, okay, but Ali's still a target." Emily interrupts Aria; she can't stand the thought of putting Alison in danger not after finding her again.

"Can't we think of another way to do this?" Emily looks pleadingly at Spencer.

Spencer looks at Aria and back at Emily at a loss at what to do. Aria says "If Ezra... ", and stops herself, "when Ezra pulls through, he's going to tell us who "A" is, and this thing is finally gonna be over." Aria says with convection as she looks at Emily.

Hanna finally gets through to the hospital. "Hi, the guy who just got shot at Bank and Hudson is Ezra Fitz. Yeah, I think that you should send a cop to the hospital because I saw what happened, and I don't think this was a random thing. Well, yeah, but he might not be safe so you better go fast." Hanna hangs up quickly before they can ask her too many more questions.

"Are they sending somebody?" Aria asks with unease.

"Yeah, I heard her typing." Hanna answers as she messes with the phone.

"Look, they're probably on their way." She tells Aria reassuringly.

"Are we sure that we want to split up?" Emily asks as she looks at Alison, who she can't seem to keep her eyes from wondering to for fear of losing her,

"A wise commander takes measures to always let his opponent react to the wrong set of circumstances. And in 400 BC... ", Spencer starts on a small rant.

Hanna interrupts her before she can give them a long winded history lesson. "Okay, Spencer, we get it. We're decoys."

"There's no art to this war, Spencer." Alison states matter-of-factly.

"You've read Sun Tzu?" Spencer asks in amazement.

Aria can't take waiting any longer, "Okay, let's go."

Hanna yells, "Wait." Before Aria and Alison take off, "Just in case." She says as she pulls out the gun 'A' had and holds it out to Alison. Aria grabs it and puts it in her coat.

"We'll give you ten minutes, okay, and then we're making the call." Emily says trying not to run after Alison.

Hanna and Spencer take off across the road but Emily can't seem to move. She can't bear to see Alison leave. "Em, come on." Hanna says trying to get Emily to come with her and Spencer, but Emily looks longingly after Alison.

"Look, if you want to get to the hospital before them, we have to go now." Spencer says trying to get Emily to snap out of it.

"We know that "A" is always one step ahead of us." Emily says with concern still looking where Alison and Aria had headed off to.

"Yeah. Maybe he, she, it, bitch is. But you have to remember that. Ali's been hiding in plain sight for two years. She can handle herself." Spencer says with confidence as Emily looks between her and where Ali was.

"And if "A" sees us there first, then this could work." Hanna says as she turns to leave, Spencer follows and Emily turns and follows as well reluctantly.

Hanna, Spencer, and Emily make it to the hospital and head to the waiting room, where they see "A" down one of the halls on the phone. It was time to put their plans into action. As the three sat in the waiting room, Alison and Aria entered the second floor of the hospital and went to the nurses' station looking for Ezra.

Over the PA system they heard " ** _Alison DiLaurentis, please report to the Emergency Room. Alison DiLaurentis report to the Emergency Room._** "

Aria looks at Alison and tells her, "Okay, you better get out of here."

As Spencer, Emily and Hanna are watching from the waiting room they see "A" head for the elevator after Alison.

"Stairs" Spencer tells Emily and Hanna heading towards the door to the stairs.

Alison leaves the emergency room as quickly as she can "A" right behind her. She makes her way through the city trying to draw "A" away. She's terrified but she has to make sure that she is drawing the hooded person away from Ezra. He's the only one who can tell them who "A" is and then she can stop running and maybe have a chance of figure things out with Emily. That's what has kept her going these last few days, knowing that Emily wanted her to come home.

Aria stays behind to wait for news on Ezra, while Spencer, Hanna, and Emily follow a ways behind Alison.

Alison stops for a second to catch her breath and "A" pops up right in front of her. She runs off toward a park and tries to hide.

A hooded figure sneaks up on Alison and whispers, "Want to play?" She looks slight terrified. "It's over." The figure whispers.

"No. It's not." Alison says with resolve, a smirk playing on her lips.

Spencer stalks out from behind a tree, "Did you really think we'd let Ali leave that hospital alone?"

"We paged Alison so you'd know she was there." Emily says coming towards the person in the hood.

"I guess you don't read Sun Tzu, bitch." Hanna quips.

"Hey!" Alison yells getting the figures attention and spraying them with tear gas. The figure gasps in pain.

"Are you sure that's 'A'?" A voice comes from behind the five taunting, "Maybe I'm "A"!

Or maybe it's one of them." They turn as more people in mask start to appear from all sides of the park.

"Maybe I'm 'A'." Comes a voice and then laughter as the figures circle around the girls taunting and laughing as the push the girls closer and close together.

A police car pulls up and blares it lights and sirens. "All right, folks, we need you to disperse now." The mask figures run in all different directions leaving the five girls, who hide in the park.

"'A' was one step ahead of us." Emily says with frustration.

"At least we got 'A' away from Ezra." Alison says with slight relief.

"Let's get out of here." Emily says as they all take off.

*******

Aria's starting to get restless waiting to hear any news when she hears a nurse on the phone." Mrs. Fitzgerald. We've successfully removed the bullet but arterial damage is extensive."

"Yes, that's right."

Aria was so thrilled to hear that at the very least Ezra was okay for now. She pulls out her phone and calls the burner phone.

Alison answers and tells Aria they are okay but that "A" got away.

"I'm sorry you lost that bitch, but you did get "A" out of here." Aria whispers as not to draw too much attention.

"Is Ezra out of surgery?" Alison asks with worry in her voice.

"I heard them tell Ezra's mom that the bullet traveled up and hit... "Aria can't bear to say it out loud. She continues, "She's getting on a plane, but she's in Sydney. And there's nobody here for him but me." Aria says with regret.

"Do you want us to come there?" Hanna asks with concern.

"No. No, so far I'm blending in, but I think with the five of us, it might be waving a red flag." Aria tells Hanna, she doesn't want to risk Alison being caught.

"Once he's out of surgery, it's still gonna take him a few hours to wake up." Emily tells Aria, to let her know that them being there right then wouldn't make much difference.

"We need to find somewhere to go."

"Call us as soon as you hear anything." Alison tells Aria, she is really worried about Ezra; he truly is a good guy.

"I will." Aria says and adds, "Guys, promise me you'll be safe."

"Don't worry about us, Aria. We'll be okay. We promise." Spencer tells her, even though she isn't completely sure about it herself.

"Bye." Emily says before they hang up.

"If "A" can't get to Ezra, you're the available target tonight" Emily says looking at Alison with fear in her eyes.

"Yeah, Em's right. I mean, we can't just stand out here in the street like sitting... ducks." Hanna says looking at Spencer daring her to say something snippy.

"I know a place we can go. Come on" Alison tells the other four as she leads the way.

Alison takes them down on alley and in a back door; they filter into the space, squinting to see. Alison makes her way over to a large panel of switches and pulls a switch and brings up some lights.

Hanna, Spencer, and Emily had made their way out onto the stage. Hanna can't believe her eyes, "Well...If you wanted to impress someone with a "wow" moment, this would definitely be how you'd do it. "

"He didn't bring me here to impress me." Alison said shrugging with a bit of a laugh in her words.

"This was kind of his special place." She says looking at Hanna. She tells them about Ezra bringing her there a few years ago and the cleaning man calling him Mr. Fitzgerald. That had been when she meet Joe and his wife at The Mockingbird Café.

"That's when I realized Ezra was a rich boy pretending to be a poor boy. I actually liked him more for that. Not because he didn't want the money, but because he totally had me fooled." Alison hated to admit that someone actually fooled her. Emily looks at Alison with slight hurt in her eyes, she really didn't want to hear any more about her and Ezra she could feel jealousy bubbling up inside her.

"I actually thought that was an asset back then"

Hanna grabs a riffle off the wall above the fake fireplace. "Wow. This is a real gun."

"Hanna!" Emily yells, running over to take it away from Hanna. Hanna was such a child sometimes, but that's what makes her endearing.

"So you think we'll be okay here until morning?" Hanna asks Alison.

"I've stayed over a few times. They don't open up the place until noon." Alison tells her reassuringly.

All of the sudden someone's stomach grumbles loudly. "What was that?" Alison asks with a little smirk.

Hanna and Emily say at the same time. "Spencer's stomach."

"Sorry, I haven't had anything to eat since a petit four at the bridal show." Spencer says defending herself.

"Come on, let's raid the concession stand." Alison tells them leading them out of the theater to the concession stands.

"You think that it's still gonna be stocked?" Spencer asks slight desperation in her tone.

"Spence, we need to get you some food." Hanna tells Spencer, she knows how she gets without food.

"I'm literally at the point where I cannot think." Spencer admits.

Spencer and Hanna start raiding under the counter finding a few different snacks. Emily, Spencer, and Hanna start talking and laughing about some show about strange things people eat. Alison watches the girls interact with a smile, but after awhile she starts to feel a bit left out and she decides to excuse herself. "I need to find a better place to make a call." Alison says playing with her phone.

"Who do you need to talk to?" Spencer asks curiosity getting the best of her.

"I have a few friends that are gonna be worried now that the police know I'm alive. They've risked a lot to help me; I just need to let them know that I'm okay. I'll be right back." Alison says as she heads for the stairs to the balcony.

The three girls look at each other with a bit of confusion and Hanna decides to follow her up the stairs. Emily and Spencer hang back as Alison talks to someone on the phone.

Aria sits nervously in the waiting room when someone sits down next to her, it's Shana. Aria is less than thrilled to see her. Shana tells her that Alison sent her to keep an eye on her. Aria tells her she doesn't need a watchdog. She tells her she made a promise so she is staying. Shana tells Aria she looks exhausted and if she falls asleep she'll wake her up. Aria insists that she is fine.

Alison decides to curl up on one of the chairs on the stage and falls into a peaceful sleep, feeling safer than she has in awhile. Spencer and Hanna sit together a little ways from Alison and Emily is laying on the couch next to Spencer

Spencer speaks to Hanna in a hushed whisper. "Is it just me or does it already feel like she's shutting us out again?"

"Shh." Hanna hiss at Spencer.

"What?" Spencer asks in confusion because Alison is out completely.

"She can hear you." Hanna snips at her.

"She's sleeping." Spencer retorts.

"She's Ali." Hanna says with a knowing look as gets up and walks to where Alison is sleeping. Emily sits up to see if Alison is awake or not as Hanna bends down and waves her hand in front of Alison's face, Ali doesn't even flinch.

"She's sleeping." Hanna stage whispers.

"Thanks, Han." Spencer says rolling her eyes.

"It makes sense that Ali had people helping her." Emily says looking at Alison.

"You know, if it were us, we'd want her to call. We'd want to know that she was okay." She says looking back and forth between Spencer and Hanna trying to get them to understand where Alison is coming from.

"That's the thing, Em. It is us. We're the ones who are risking everything to help her." Spencer says in frustration. "It's not some random do-gooders that she's met along the way." She says her brow furrowing.

"We just have to wait it out a few more hours. Once Ezra tells us who "A" is, this will finally be over." Emily states just trying to get through this next hurdle to getting Alison home FINALLY.

"From your lips to God's ears." Hanna says looking up.

"When did you become religious?" Spencer quips giving Hanna a puzzled look

"My mom's dating a preacher, remember?" Hanna says giving Spencer a slightly patronizing look.

The three of them sat up talking like old times wondering what they use to do with themselves before "A" showed up and threw their lives into chaos. It was nice to just be teenagers for a little while at least.

Aria is still sitting at the hospital waiting for information on Ezra while Shana hovers right next to her. Aria finally can't keep her eyes open and falls asleep in the waiting room. Shana picks up her coat and feels the heaviness in her coat. She pulls out the gun from the inside pocket and covers up Aria with the jacket before she walks away. She'd being waiting for Aria to finally sit down long enough to fall asleep so she could get the gun back.

Alison is awoken suddenly with a gloved hand across her mouth, she gasps as she sees CeCe standing next her. Alison tilts her head to the side to indicate for CeCe to follow her.

She leads her backstage away from the three sleeping girls so they can talk.

"How did you find me?" Alison asks CeCe looking around nervously.

"Well, we don't just look alike. We think alike, too." CeCe tells Alison with an intense look.

"You took a big risk coming here." Alison says with irritation boiling under the surface.

"I didn't have a choice. Alison, you asked for my help in Ravenswood." CeCe says with pleading in her voice. "Now I need yours." Alison looks toward where the girls are sleeping to make sure no one has snuck up on them.

When she feels like its safe she asks CeCe, "So what do you need?"

"I had to take care of Wilden Ali, he was getting to close, I did it to protect you. I was able to escape after they caught me during a transfer but it won't be long till they find me again. Rosewood PD and the FBI are looking for me!" CeCe tells Ali knowing she will help her because of all the times she had Ali's back.

Alison called Noel and told him to meet her at the dinner across from the theater.

CeCe and Alison grab a table and wait for Noel to arrive. They order some drinks and as they come Noel enters the dinner and sit across from the two blondes. Alison and Noel explain to CeCe about the ticket and passport that Noel had gotten for her to help her to escape.

"Are you sure this is gonna work?" Alison asks with concern.

"It has to. I don't have another choice." CeCe says with passion.

Noel slides the tickets, passport, and money over to CeCe. "We should be okay if we do this today. The cops are still looking in Philadelphia." Noel says reassuringly with a bit of a smirk The Rosewood PD left a lot to be desired.

"You having second thoughts?" CeCe asks Alison with apprehension.

"No. I just realized this might be the last time I see you." Alison admits sadly.

"Don't be so dramatic, Ali. You know us. We always find a way back to each other." CeCe says sounding so sure.

"Is this the part where you guys kiss?" Noels pipes up raising his eyebrow suggestively. Both blondes give him a matching death stare. "Had to ask." He said with a boyish smirk.

"You better get going." Alison says standing up from her seat.

Noel stands up as well as Cece pulls Alison in for a hug. "Thank you." She tells Alison as she pulls away.

"You'd do the same for me." She tells CeCe who had always felt like a sister to her. CeCe heads out and Noel stands next to Alison making sure she's okay.

"I'll be okay," she tells Noel. "I need to get back to the girls before they realize I'm gone."

Aria awakes to see that Shana is missing; she heads to the desk to ask about Ezra. She gets hi's room number and heads down the hall. When she enters she see's Shana already in the room. Ezra was still asleep. "What are you doing? You said that you'd wake me up" She asks Shana worry in her voice.

'He's still unconscious, but he's stable." Shana lets her know.

Ezra's eyes start to flutter open. "Ezra?" Aria says so happy to see him awake.

Ezra looks at Aria with relief then his eyes move over to Shana and his heart rate shots up. Aria runs out into the hall for help as Shana slips out of the room. Nurses rush in to stabilize Ezra and ask Aria to leave so they could work.

Alison sneaks back through the emergency exit of the theater and makes her way back to the stage. As she walks back to the chair she was sleeping in she checks on Spencer and Hanna when she hears, HER, voice the one she has missed so much it hurts.

"Where have you been?" Emily asks from the chair Alison had previously been sitting in, with slight accusation in her tone. She couldn't stand the thoughts that had been running through her head when she woke up and Ali was gone. Her first thought was "A" had gotten a hold of her, followed by the thought she had run away from HER again.

Alison was slightly surprised to see Emily. ""Em, please don't wake up the other." Alison says pleading.

""We're all in this together, Ali. At least that's what we thought." Emily says hurt evident in her eyes.

Alison bends down in front of Emily"There are some things you don't need to know about, Em." Alison rests her hand on Emily's knee needing the contact. "Okay?" She says with emotion thick in her throat. "It's better that way." Alison doesn't break eye contact with Emily willing her to let it go for now.

"That's not a good enough answer." Emily can't stand for Alison to shut her out again not after all this time.

Alison looks over at Spencer as she hears her stir and Alison decides she needs to talk to Emily but not here. "Come on" she tells Emily has she takes her hand and pulls Emily with her, looking back to make sure she's coming but not letting her hand drop. She missed this, the feel of Emily's soft skin and her slightly bigger hand holding hers. Emily always made her feel better, safer than anyone else.

Alison led Emily back stage and she sat down on one of the benches facing toward Emily

"Ezra was paying CeCe for information. That's why she was in Ravenswood." Alison tells Emily trying to explain why CeCe kept showing up.

"So she wasn't ever really Red Coat?" Emily asks need clarification.

"No, I asked her to wear that hoping that she would distract "A" so I could turn off the saw."A" put you in that box. Not CeCe. She helped me save your life." Alison explains, she did it all to save her and CeCe had been a huge help.

"Why does this have to be a secret? Why can't you tell the other girls?" Emily can't stand keeping things from the others; they had been doing that to each other for far too long.

"CeCe killed a cop, Em, and part of why she did that was for me." Alison says willing Emily to understand, the fewer people who knew the better. "Look, if she gets busted boarding that plane, my face is on the passport. That makes me an accessory. And now you know about it. That makes you one, too." Alison says with a bit of sadness. "You guys have done so much for me." Alison says squeezing Emily's thigh, which shoots electricity between the pair. Alison shakes it off and continues, "You do not need to go out on a limb for CeCe. I will take the fall for it alone if it comes to it." Without realizing it Alison was leaning in closer to Emily and was just a whispers breath away from Emily's full lips. Emily's eyes go immediately to Alison's heart shaped lips as she nervously bites her bottom lip. She was realizing how much she missed those lips; she'd never been brave enough to kiss Emily at least not when she was fully awake. Right before their lips can touch they hear footsteps coming toward them and jump apart.

Hanna is the first to enter followed by Spencer. "Hey, Aria's on the phone, but we can't hear her." Hanna says looking between Emily and Alison suspiciously. Emily had a guilty look on her face and Alison tried not to make eye contact.

"Tell her to call the house line." Alison suggests trying to break the sudden tension and get the focus off her and Emily. She gives Hanna the number to text Aria. Spencer's still eyeing Alison and Emily trying to figure out if they had interrupted something between the two.

They follow Alison to the hallway where the house phone is located. When the phone rings Alison picks it up, "How is he?"

"Ezra made it through surgery, but I haven't been able to... Damn it." Aria says as the phone drops the call.

The phone rings and Alison picks it up again, "Hello, can you hear me?"

"Hello?" A voice asks from the line she's never heard before. "Alison?" He asks.

Alison freeze for a moment, _who was that and how did he know her name?_ She hangs up the phone and turns toward the other three with a look of fear and concern covering her features.

"What is it?" Spencer asks with apprehension in her voice.

Alison's swallows down the fear building and holds back her tears.

Aria tries to call the number again, as the phone rings at the theater Alison looks at it in fear. Terror starts to creep into Emily's chest as she looks at the ringing phone.

Alison tells them about the man who was on the phone asking her if she was Alison.

"Did you recognize the voice?" Emily asks concerned for Alison's safety.

"No." Alison answers, tears starting to fall.

"Okay. We can't wait for Ezra to tell us who "A" is. We have to get you to the airport. You can still use that passport and that ticket that Noel gave you, right?" Spencer asks Alison trying to figure out the best move to make next.

"I don't have it anymore." Alison admits with regret.

"What?" Hanna asks in shock.

*********

Aria went to check on Ezra after she was unable to get a hold of the others again. Ezra was finally stable but still weak. He is desperately trying to tell Aria something but she's having trouble hearing him. She leans down and Ezra manages to whisper that Shana's "A". Terror fills Aria as she runs out to check the waiting room for any sign of Shana. No luck, she's gone.

"I gave away my get out of town free card to someone who needed it more than I did." Alison says leaving it at that.

"Ali, who needs more help than you do right now?" Hanna couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"It doesn't matter." Alison said shaking her head; she's not giving up CeCe.

"It does to us. Look, Ali, either you trust us or you don't." Spencer says furious, she's tired of playing games.

"No more secrets, Ali. You were wrong before. They didn't keep us together." Hanna says not pulling any punches.

"We can argue about this in the cab. Okay? Let's grab our stuff and go." Emily jumps in trying to get the attention focused elsewhere. She can't bear to see her other friends pushing Alison like this.

The four of them run out to the stage to gather their things "Come on." Spencer says the first to the stage.

"But we have to hurry." Emily says urgently.

All the lights go out and the girls freeze on the stage.

'Who's out there?' Emily asks fear lacing her voice.

Just then the stage lights come up and Shana comes out from backstage a gun pointing at the girls.

"Couldn't have picked a better place to end your story."

"Shana?" Alison says in disbelief as she steps back next to Spencer, who grabs Ali's hand. "Shana?" Alison says again as she steps slightly behind Spencer.

Shana explains how she was part of locking the girls in the lodge but Alison was late to arrive so she wasn't able to take care of them but instead had to help Alison save them.

"I trusted you, Shana." Alison says tears in her eyes.

"You once told me the only way to trust someone was to not ask too many questions. And then you sent me to Rosewood to ask questions." Shana says with agitatedly waving the gun.

The girls try to put themselves between Shana and Alison "Move." Shana yells in irritation.

"Shana. Why... Why would you turn on me like this?" Alison asks trying to understand why she would do this.

"I got so many answers from all the people …you hurt. Your own mother was afraid of you." Shana says with undisguised disgust.

Emily tries to defend her but Shana interrupts her, "Get back!" She yells pointing the gun at Emily to make her point.

Emily tries again. "Ali's made mistakes, okay, Shana, but what makes you better?" She asks her curiously.

"You're sick, Shana. Like Mona was, but we can get you help." Hanna tells her with a mix of pity and revulsion.

"I'm not Mona. This isn't a game." Shana saws her face twisting with loathing.

"So what is it?" Spencer wants to know and also buy sometime to figure out a strategy.

"Justice." Shana says with conviction.

"For who?" Spencer asks in mystification.

"Jenna." Alison answers knowingly. "You fell in love with her." Alison says with realization.

"You have no idea who she is." Shana states with certainty.

"We never meant... " Emily says as she moves toward Shana.

"Get back or I'll blow your head off!" Shana interrupts Emily pointing the gun at her once again.

"What did you call it once, Ali? A happy accident?" Shana asks throwing Alison's words back at her.

"Jenna doesn't love you, Shana." Alison tells her apologetically. "She's playing you. That's what she does." Alison tells her remembering the things she'd done to Toby.

"No, that's what you do." Shana says with hate filling her words.

"So what? She's the mastermind and you're her henchman?" Spencer asks trying to figure out why Shana would become part of the "A" team. Unbeknownst to the four girls and Shana Aria had snuck back into the theater. She grabs the shotgun on her way through.

"Jenna doesn't even know I'm here. And she'll never know. And once I'm done with you, she can finally get back to her life."

Aria makes her way towards Shana, "Hey, Shana!" Aria speaks through clenched teeth as she hits Shana in the face with the butt of the shotgun. The force knocks Shana back and the gun fires hitting one of overhead lights. The girls all scream out in terror and drop to the floor. Aria use the butt of the gun to push her back once more and Shana falls of the stage and hits the ground of the orchestra section hard, the gun clattering to the floor. Alison looks down at Shana and sees blood coming from her head as the girls make their way to the end of the stage. Spencer stands next to Aria for support, Hanna grabs Emily's arm comfortingly and Alison stands next to Emily in shock.

Emily makes her way down off the stage to check Shana's pulse. Alison starts to sob and Hanna wraps her arms around her as Alison puts her head on her shoulder unable to look. Emily doesn't feel any pulse and pulls back with a ragged breath, "She's dead."

Aria walks away from the group in shock over what just happened. Spencer walks over to her and grabs her arms and looks into Aria's eyes, "Hey, you did what you had to do, okay? She tells her trying to reassure her. Hanna is still holding Alison who is sobbing and has buried her head in Hanna's shoulder.

Emily makes her way back up to the stage and stands behind Spencer. "Spencer's right. She would have killed all of us." Emily tells her wrapping her arms around herself; she feels cold and a bit of relief at the same time.

"It really is over." Aria states with relief playing across her features for a brief second. "It's over." She whispers realizing that someone had died at her hands a haunted look on her face.

"Yeah." Spencer says as she and Emily pull Aria into a hug.

"Let's go home." Emily says looking at Alison begging her to finally come home.

Alison looks down at Shana's body, "We can't just leave her here." She's says with sadness in her eyes, Shana had been there for her through some really tough times. Alison couldn't bear the thought of leaving her there alone.

Spencer uses the burner phone to call the police, "There's been an accident." She gives the theater name and hangs up. They decide to head to bus station it's time that they ALL went home.


	14. Chapter 13

**If you enjoy this story please, please review or tell me what you like or don't like. Thanks I hope you all like this chapter, also thank you** **Quindecim** **for reviewing the last two chapters.**

On the bus ride back Alison was glued to Emily's side, they were all so exhausted from the events that transpired in the theater. They started the bus ride talking about what needed to be done when they returned to Rosewood. They decided it was time to come clean to the police about what happened that summer. After that they talked about Rosewood and what had changed since Alison left and about ten minutes in everyone started fading fast. Emily and Alison were the last two awake, but Alison could barely keep her eyes open. Emily put her arm around Ali and she curled into Emily's side and rested her head on Em's shoulder. Emily could feel Alison relaxing against her and Ali's breathing started evening out as she fell asleep. Emily bent down and placed a single soft kiss on her forehead and Alison murmured in her sleep with a small smile playing on her lips. Emily tried to stay awake to keep an eye on Alison; she looked so peaceful when she slept. Emily rested her head on top of Alison's as sleep overtook her.

 **"** **Next stop Rosewood"** came over the PA. Alison was the only one to wake up to the announcement. Somehow Emily's head had ended up in Alison's lap; she couldn't help smiling at her as she slept. She pushed a few stray hairs from Emily's face. "Em we're almost there." She says trying to gentle wake Emily.

Emily didn't remember where she was at first and was that Alison. "Ali?" She asks half asleep.

Alison smiles at her. "Yes it's me and we're almost home."

Emily sat up stretching and smiled back at Ali, she had missed that beautiful smile. "We should wake the others." She says with a little disappointment.

As the bus pulled into Rosewood Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily made their way off the bus followed by Alison who stopped on the bottom step. "Ali, are you okay?" Hanna asks concerned.

She turns around to get back on the bus and Emily reaches for her. "Stop. You don't need to run anymore." She says reassuringly as she puts her hand on Ali's arm.

""A" is gone. Come on." Alison slowly turns around and gets off the bus.

As the bus drives away, Alison pulls her jacket tighter around her suddenly feeling cold. ."Ali, look... we talked about this. You know it's the right decision." Spencer tells her with determination.

"Maybe I should go home first... speak to my mom." Alison says trying to stall the inevitable. She wasn't ready to deal with all the prying questions and the staring eyes.

"Ali, your mother buried you." Emily reminds Alison gently.

"Look, I think it's more important that the police know you're alive before your mom does." Spencer says being the voice of reason as usual.

"Hey, yeah. You need to walk in there and tell them everything. I mean, about Mona being "A," Shana taking over where Mona left off... all of it. Start with the night that you ran away." Emily says trying to be helpful.

"No. Before that you have to start with the Jenna thing." Spencer interjects forcefully.

"Wait, what? Why?" Hanna asks in confusion, hadn't they all swore to never speak of that night again.

"She has to. Shana was after us for payback for what happened to Jenna." Spencer explains trying to get them to understand.

"I can't do this. I can't." Alison says fear evident in her voice.

"You can." Emily says looking deeply in Alison's eyes. "Okay, you're not in this alone."A" tortured all of us, and what happened to Shana..."

Aria interrupts, "Happened because of me. And I can handle that part. I think. But, Ali, look, you're gonna have to cover the rest."

Alison looks at Aria and then at the police station tears threatening to fall. "Ali." Spencer says trying to break her out of the trance she's in. "Are we in agreement?" Alison has a look of pure terror in her eyes but she shakes her head yes,

Alison heads across the street to the police station, Emily right behind her followed by the other three girls. She walks in to station where a man comes out of an office, "Are you Detective Holbrook?" She asks him.

"I am." He says recognizing Alison almost immediately.

"I think you've been looking for me. I'm... ", She starts.

He interrupts her "I know who you are. I'm glad you're with your friends. Welcome home. I'm guessing you have a lot to tell me. Maybe we can begin with the night that you disappeared."

Alison looks in her purse and sees a new message on her phone as she reads it her demeanor changes, "I didn't disappear. I was kidnapped. I was kidnapped and held hostage for two years," the girls all exchange weary glances as Alison continues, "and if it weren't for my friends, I wouldn't be standing here. They saved my life." She says holding back tears. She wishes she could explain to the girls but she can't, not while at the police station with all these people around.

Holbrook questioned Alison about her visiting the girls in Ravenswood from a picture he had received. She told him she had escaped from the kidnapper's car. She also explained how she asked the girls to hide her because she was afraid if he found her, he would hurt her. She told him that they hide her in a shed in the woods. He wasn't buying her story, he was about to ask her how that was possible when the girls had supposedly saved her in Philly but Mr. DiLaurentis showed up and interrupted them before he could ask.

Alison's dad thought it would be best to take Alison home for the night and the girls decided to do the same.

***********  
Emily heads home with Spencer because her mom isn't supposed to be home till later. When they arrive at the Hastings's house, Mrs. Hastings tells Emily she better call her mother because she's been delayed in Texas due to storms but she can stay there as long as she needs to. She tells them she will call her mom from outside.

Emily reluctantly calls her mom who has thousands of questions for her.

"Does she know who this man is?" Mrs. Fields ask.

"She never saw this person, Mom. She only heard his voice. I... I guess he had her locked in a room or... I don't know. Look, can we talk about this later?" Please." Emily asks slightly begging.

"Sure sweetheart, we will talk about this later, okay?" Mrs. Fields says with understanding.

"Okay. Yeah." Emily answers.

"I love you Em." She tells her.

"I love you, too. Bye." Emily hangs up and looks at Spencer.

"What's wrong?" Emily asks with alarm.

"What's not?" Spencer asks shrugging her shoulders in frustration. "We made a pact, Emily."A" is finally dead, and we were all ready to get back to our lives, and now all of a sudden we're back on Planet Alison."

"Okay, Spencer... ", Emily says walking towards Spencer.

Spencer interrupts Emily, "It's like its 9th grade all over again, and we are here on 'The Whirly Girlie Ride.'" Spencer says angrily as she walks off. She turns around and walks back toward Emily "And Ali goes rogue, and we're just expected to backup her story. You're even adding to the lie. Why is she still controlling us?'

"Maybe she flipped last minute because she wanted to protect her mom." Emily states trying to think of a reason Alison would change her story. "Maybe she wanted to hear why her mom did what she did before it gets forced out of her by the police."

"Are you really gonna stay here and defend Ali right now?" Spencer asks accusingly.

"I am not... " Emily starts but is interrupted by the sound of a car door opening and someone coming from in front of the DiLaurentis House.

Spencer heads over to see what is going on followed by Emily; they duck next to the bushes. They see Jason throwing stuff into the garbage from the backseat of his car. "Okay. Is it just me or is this a really weird time to detail your car." Spencer asks suspiciously.

"Does Jason not know that she is home?" Emily asks curiously, how could he not know?!

"Of course he knows. The only question is why would you be squee-gee-ing your backseat if your sister just got back from the dead?" Spencer asks in a whisper. They wait there till Jason is finished and he heads back inside.

Emily and Spencer sneak out of their hiding space and towards Jason's car as they are looking in the car they hear a window creak and look up at Alison's window. Alison drops down a roll of toilet paper. Emily picks it up and finds Alison's phone inside the tube. "What is that? Her phone?" Spencer asks with alarm. Emily opens the phone it's a text message.

The Truth will

Bury you in a

New York minute.

"Who sent you this?" Emily asks Alison with anxiety lacing her voice, Alison close her window and with her finger on the foggy window she puts a giant question mark. Then Alison walks away from the window and turns her overhead light off.

Alison opens her closet and pulls the string to turn on the light, she looks at her clothes for a few minutes and then turns and looks around her room. It feels like forever since the last time she was in this room. It feels so familiar and foreign at the same time. A doll sitting in the chair by her window gets her attention. She heads to the chair and retrieves the doll and sits down looking closely at the toy. It reminds her of a simpler more innocent time that she desperately misses. She actually thought that the whole "A" debacle could finally be put to rest but when she got the text message at the precinct she knew it was all too good to be true. _How could I have let Em talk me into coming?_ She wonders, oh yeah that's right she can't deny Emily anything not since she almost lost her twice now, Emily holds too much of her heart for her to tell her no and break both their hearts in the process.

Alison was so immersed in her thoughts that she didn't realize that her father was standing there at her door till he spoke. "Hey, you there... I was thinking maybe you wanna sleep downstairs tonight, you won't have to be in here by yourself." He says trying to help her re-adjust to being home.

"It's okay, Dad." Alison answers with emotion thick in her throat. "I've been dreaming about this moment for a long time... sleeping in my own bed." Sadness plays across her face.

"I understand... I just... I don't think I can ever let you out of my sight again." He says unable to tear his eyes from her.

"Have you heard from mom?" Alison asks unease fixed on her face.

"Ah, your brother and I had been trying to reach her; I can't say I'm not worried, because I am." He says looking at the floor.

"I'm sure she's fine." Alison says with as much hope as she can muster, which isn't much at the current moment.

"Alison, I know this is maybe asking for too much, but" he says as he comes in her room and sits in the chair next to her, "... um... I want you to feel safe. I've asked the police to put up a barrier at the end of the street. Lot of people are gonna wanna hear your story, but you don't have to leave this house or talk to anybody until you're ready." Alison is desperately trying to hold back the tears that threaten to fall at any time.

" I... I can't give you those years back. Alison, I can't, but I promise I will do everything I can to help you forget them." He says with a quiver in his voice and tears in his eyes.

"Uhh... do you remember this?" He asks as he takes a picture out of his wallet. "I've had it my wallet since the night we lost you". He hands Alison the photo. "This is the little girl I refuse to let go of." He stands up and kisses Alison on the head. Alison can't hold the tears back as they start to silently fall.

Her dad pulls her blinds down and turns to leave her room, "Honey I need to know that' he stops to clear the lump from he's throat, "your mom and I... we aren't living together anymore. Uh... we decided a few months ago to get a divorce"

"I know. Emily told me." Alison forces out the words.

"I'm sorry, Dad." Alison says with regret clouding her eyes.

"So am I." He says with a nervous laugh and he heads back down the hall.

Alison allows the tears to fall as she looks at the picture her dad has kept of her for all this time. Now that she's alone she can fall apart without anyone thinking she is weak, but the problem is, she is weak, she always has been. That's why she had pushed Emily way so many times; she was pathetic, too afraid that someone would find out that she cared for Emily so deeply that it hurts. She doesn't deserve Emily, not after everything but she can bring herself to let her go.

After crying till no more tears would come, Alison decides she should probably try to get some sleep. She crawls into bed and just lays and stares at the ceiling. She hears a noise from downstairs and sits up in a panic. She tells herself it's just her imagination and lays back down and rolls away from her door. She hears her door open and holds her breath not daring to move a muscle. After what feels like an eternity she hears the door close with a quite click. She rolls over and gets out of bed and opens her door quietly as possible. No one is there, she closes her door and locks it for good measure and crawls back into bed.

The next morning after a pretty much sleepless night, Alison decides she can't stand looking at these four walls an longer. She goes down the stairs and decides to head out on the porch for some fresh air. She steps out on the front porch and notices an empty bird cage. "What are you doing? Ali, you can't be out here." Jason asks accusingly shaking Alison out of her trance.

"There is about 10 cars at the end of our street. Alright? Press, police." He says with unease showing.

"I'm not twerking through town. Okay?" Alison says sarcastically as she sits on the steps.

"I just wanna sit on my porch." She says trying to be a bit nicer.

"You haven't asked me any questions. How come?" She asks curiously.

"Figured you might need your space." Jason says not looking at Alison.

"What was mom's reaction? When she found out I was still alive?" Alison asks truly wanting to know, she missed her mom terrible, they may not always have gotten along but she did love her at least as much as she could love anyone.

"She was stunned." Jason answers sorrow in his eyes.

"What do you expect?" He asks her with he is talking a van pulls up the drive. Jason tells Alison, "Get inside." anxiety edging his voice.

Alison stays sitting on the porch watching as a woman gets out of the van. She heads to the back and opens the truck as Jason asks "Can I help you?"

"I have an appointment with Mrs. DiLaurentis." The woman tells Jason.

"Who are you?" Jason asks getting agitated.

"Kathy Paras," She answers as she gets a dog out of the van, "County shelter. We arranged to bring Pepe over this morning." She walks with the dog toward Jason. "Mrs. DiLaurentis wants to adopt him." She says as she stops in front of Jason. "Sit." Alison makes her way over to Jason and the dog as Pepe sits for Kathy. "Good, boy."

"My mother didn't order this" Jason says with disgust. Alison stops next to him with a small smile appearing.

"It's a dog, cowboy, not a pizza. And she did." She says meeting his hostility with snark.

"He is so smart." Alison says as she bends down to pet Pepe.

"Yeah." Kathy answers kneeling across from Alison.

"Why was he at the shelter?" Alison asks while loving on him.

"Oh! He's got issues, mostly with men." Kathy says looking pointedly at Jason.

"Put him back in the van. Now!" Jason spits out furiously.

"What happens to him if we don't take him?" Alison asks feeling bad for the dog, she knows how he feels to be unwanted.

"Basically, Mrs. D. was the last stop on his train. It's not pretty." Kathy answers with a sad look. Alison holds her hand out for Pepe's leash with a smile. She walks Pepe in the house with her ignoring the look of disdain on Jason's face.

Emily heads out of Spencer's gate towards Alison's house to return her phone; she hears her name from behind her. "Em? Wait up. My mom told us to stay close to home." Spencer says as she jogs to catch up to Emily.

"I am not going to school. I'm just giving Ali's phone back to her." Emily tells her reassuringly as she continues walking.

"Hanna told Aria about the text," Annoyance present in Spencer's voice as she catches up and walks with Em.

"Why would she do that?" Emily asks confused, they had agreed to leave her out of it for now.

"Because she's Hanna." Spencer snips with frustration.

"And now Aria is freaked out. She thinks A is back and she's one text away from being turned into the police." Spencer says with pity for Aria who had been through so much after Shana's death.

"'A' is dead." Emily states with certainty.

"Yeah, I know that. But... but part of me thinks that that text was Jenna's way of welcoming Alison home." Spencer explains trying to figure out who sent that message.

"We can handle Jenna and others, five of us and one of her." Emily says with assurance.

"Yeah, but we killed that hers... her." Spencer doesn't really know what to call Jenna and Shana's relationship. She heads over to the DiLaurentis' trash can opening the lid.

"What are you doing?" Emily asks her with a slight whisper of anxiety.

"We never looked last night to see what Jason threw out, and we probably should have... ", Spencer says as digs through, "look at this, when was Jason in New York?" She says showing a fast-food bag to Emily from a bakery in New York.

"That's why no rush." Emily says with understanding crossing her face.

"Sorry, you channeling your Filipino grandmother right now?" Spencer asks slightly confused.

"To see Alison. We... we knew that his whole visit to rehab was a big fat lie. What if he is been following her for weeks? What if Mrs. D's had him tracking her for months, years." Emily explains to Spencer.

"Do you think Jason sent that text?" Spencer asks, finally understanding.

"Spencer, if Ali told the whole truth, her mother would go down. If Mrs. D thought that someone just killed her child, who else would she cover for besides her other one?" Emily tells Spencer with confidence that she knows who tried to kill Ali.

They make their way to Alison's front door where Jason lets them in and tells them that Alison is up in her room. The head up the stairs and enter Ali's room; she is sitting on her bed with Pepe sitting on her feet. Emily hands her back her phone and sits on her bed as Spencer looks out the window.  
"Ali, it can't be a coincidence. Jason came back from New York the same night as us." Emily says with the bag from the bakery in her hand.

"He was in my room last night, watching me sleep." Alison says in a haunted monotone voice. Spencer and Emily whip around looking at Alison incredulously.

"Jason? Oh my, God! You can't stay here tonight; you need to tell your dad you wanna sleep at Spencer's." Emily says with concern, she can't stand the thought of him hurting Alison.

" It's never gonna to happen. I mean, he won't even let me walk to the freaking mailbox." Alison says in frustration.

"Where are you in this, Spencer? You haven't even said a word." Alison said with irritation, trying to hide the hurt she was feeling.

"Should I be afraid of our big brother?" Disdain drips from her voice.

"I know you told him. Don't sweat it. I'm even starting to think that my dad knows too." She said knowingly.

"So you think Jason is the one that slammed that rock in my head? I mean, is that why my mom has just magically disappeared as soon as I decide to come home?" Alison's temper was starting to get the better of her, so she was lashing out at whoever happened to be there,

"I don't know. Maybe." Spencer answers defensively.

"And you were needling both of our families with that secret; they probably both wanted you to shut up." Spencer was starting to get irritated with Alison.

"So you think that's why he went after me?" Alison asks slightly upset.

"I can't say for sure, but if your mom did choose him over you she had every reason to make the rest of us look bad, and we've been framed as pathological liars ever since then. So if we ever did find out who hit you, nobody would even believe us." Spencer lays it out for Alison, not pulling punches.

"Wow. You really have given it some thought." Alison says with the same monotone hurt surfacing in her voice.

"Look, my mom comes back tomorrow. You can stay with us." Emily tells Alison trying to break the tension that's building.

"Emily, I just got back, my dad's not gonna let me out for sleepovers." Alison snips at Emily in frustration.

"Well, what are you gonna do?" Emily says snapping back at Alison out of hurt.

"I have a few ideas." Alison says with a bit of frustration building.

"Well, can you let us in on them? So that we're not caught paddling around like idiots trying to play catch-up" Spencer says rage coming out in her words, she is fed up with her games.

"I told you Spencer... I made up that lie to protect Aria. She kind of killed someone, remember?" Alison throws back with venom, the old DiLaurentis temper flaring.

"You could have consulted us first." Spencer spits right back at Alison, she refused to back down.

"Okay, guys, please stop. What's done is done. We need to focus our energy on who's trying to sink us now." Emily tries to play peace keeper between the two's fiery personalities. She can't stand to see everyone at each other's throats. Spencer and Alison look away slightly ashamed.

Emily heads to the meet Aria at the shed Alison told the police she was staying at, after she received a text from her. She opened the door startling Aria. "Aria, Sorry I didn't mean to scare you. Just got your text... I was with Ali."

What are you doing? She asks her as she closes the door entering the shed.

Aria is laying down pillow and blankets. "If we've been out here hiding her for a month it sure as hell needs to start looking like it."

"Seriously, you can't do this right now." Emily tells her with concern.

"Yeah, you're right. We should have been out here last night filling this place with crap after Alison got that text." Aria is practically screaming at her.

As an afterthought she adds. "Oh, and thank you for keeping me in the dark about that. What am I? Your child? "She quips at Emily her feelings clearly hurt.

"We only did that because you were such a mess when your dad came to the police station." Emily tries to explain.

"Yeah and what? What you thought if I got a good night's sleep, I'd just wake up in candy land?" Arai says harshly cutting Emily off.

"Okay, Aria calm down. That text wasn't from 'A'" Emily tells her trying to defuse the situation.

"How do you know that?" Aria asks brushing past her putting cans and food containers around the floor.

"Because I was there when Shana-slash-A, was killed." Emily yells she's had it with all this. Everyone yelling and fighting, it's too much.

"Look... Spencer was right. It's one thing not to contradict Ali's story and it's another to add to it." She says trying to calm Aria down.

"We can't go down that rabbit hole again." She said with a bit of fight in her voice.

" Yeah, well, I can't do nothing, all right? Because if "A" knows that I took down Shana,

" Aria..." Emily tries to interject.

Aria continues ignoring Emily "I'm gonna be the..." Arai starts losing it tears in her eyes.

"Shana had been using us as target practice for months, what you did was purely self-defense." Emily interrupts her trying to get her to let it go for now.

"It doesn't matter. Someone is dead. All right, and she will never be able to recover or apologize or even graduate from high school because I killed her. I killed her, Emily, and I don't know how I'm gonna be able to live with that." Aria says hysterically tears barely contained.

Emily looks away from her intense stare as Aria sits down. Emily walks over toward her looking into her eyes and crouches in front of her, "Aria... in that moment, it was you or her. I went through this after... Nate. You think that no one can understand what this feels like, but I've been there."

Aria picks up an empty can and chucks it not looking at Emily.

"Remember, we used to sneak out here? Our biggest problem was how to eat peanut butter with braces." Aria says longing for those simpler times again. The same sentiment was reflected in Emily's eyes.

Emily entered the DiLaurentis' house with the key Ali had given her; she headed up to Alison's room to find Pepe on the bed. She sat down and was petting him, when she heard something from downstairs. At first it terrified her but then she realized it was Mr. D. and Jason.

"What's so pressing that you have to leave? What's in Philly? Or should I ask, who?" Mr. D said losing his temper; he was fed up with Jason's crap.

"I need to drop something off to a friend." He says dodging the question, he didn't have to explain himself to Kenneth; he wasn't his father after all.

"Right now?" Mr. D says with frustration

" I said after dinner." He said trying to make him back off.

"Your sister has been gone for nearly a... ", Mr. D starts.

Jason cuts him off his temper flaring up. "Then I will wait till she goes asleep, okay?"

"What makes you think she can sleep? Her mother is still not here, and I am thinking you're the only one who knows where she is." He says to Jason accusation in his tone.

"Think what you want." Jason says walking past Kenneth with anger.

"I don't. Jason, every time someone in this family walks out of this house it's a news story and the last thing I want is you speaking to a damn reporter." Mr. D says trying to keep some control of the rage in his voice.

" Ow, don't worry, Dad... ", He says almost with a laugh, "I won't embarrass you anymore than I already have." He turns to leave and sees Emily standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"Emily... I didn't know you were here." Mr. D said shocked she had been there and heard everything.

"Ali asked me to take Pepe for a walk." She answers slightly embarrassed. She takes Pepe and heads for the door.

"Whose dog is that? You brought home a dog?" Mr. D asks accusingly. Emily makes her way to the door trying not to listen.

""It was dropped off this morning. Mom rescued him from the shelter." Jason said quietly.

"Really? Well, maybe when you get to Philly you can tell her there is more than a dog waiting for her back home. I can't do anymore." Mr. D says as curiosity gets the better of Emily and she stops to listen for a moment.

Emily decides to call Hanna and tell her about the fight that Mr. D and Jason had, Hanna's mom asked her to drop something off anyways so she heads over to meet Emily.

Hanna and Emily head back to the DiLaurentis to take Pepe home from his walk. When they got there Hanna goes inside while Pepe decides to circle for a place to relieve himself.

When Pepe has finished Emily heads into the house and Mr. D and Hanna had just finished talking about the information Hanna's mom had found. "We were just about to have dinner. If you girls want to join us?" He asks with a slight smile, truth be told he missed the girls hanging out like old times.

"Sure. We... "Emily says with a smile.

But is interrupted by Hanna, "we can't tonight. " She answers giving Emily a pointed look.

"Uhh... right. Maybe tomorrow." Emily says trying to hide her slight disappointment.

"Anytime." He says sincerely. Emily hands him Pepe's leash as she and Hanna leave.

When they make it outside she asks Hanna with slight confusion, "What's going on? Why can't I eat dinner"

She follows Hanna to the car. "Just get in the car. I have to show you something. It's an update on Mrs. D." Hanna says making her way to the car.

"Ali's dad thinks he's hiding her in Philly." Emily tells her with a bit of disbelief.

"Wait, who's hiding her?" Hanna says clearly confused.

"Jason." Emily answers while getting in the passenger seat. "Jason told his dad he had to drop something off to a friend in Philly. Could that be code for New York?" She asks Hanna, and Hanna hands her a piece of paper.

"What is this?" She asks as she takes it from her.

"Mrs. D wrote that email the night that she escaped town, but she never sent it. It says, 'I can't protect you anymore'. Who would she have written that to?" Hanna can't believe that she had been covering for someone for so long.

Just then Jason smacks his hand on Hanna's window, making both girls jump in panic. Hanna rolls her window down and asks, "What's up, Jason?" fear edging her voice.

"I just saw what you delivered." He said knowingly.

"Your dad asked my mother... ", Hanna starts.

"Yeah, well, my mother didn't. He says cutting her off "So, maybe it is time people stay the hell out of places they don't belong. That includes you." He says narrowing his eyes and looking back and forth between Hanna and Emily. He walks off and gets in his car and pulls away.

"Follow him." Emily says determined to find out what he's hiding.

"No, you follow him. I have to change my underwear." Hanna says still slightly terrified.

"Hanna, hurry up. Okay? He might be going to see his mother." Emily says with desperation in her voice. "Hurry up!" She says a little more forcefully. Hanna starts the car and tails behind Jason.

They arrive at a rundown building covered in graffiti. They see Jason leave an apartment building and get back in his car and leave. They get out of the car and head toward the apartment he came out of. "There is no way his mom's in there. Mrs. D wouldn't even walk down this street." Hanna says with certainty in her voice.

"Why not? If she's hiding out she's not gonna be doing it at the Four Seasons" Emily states obviously as they get closer.

"We need to ring the buzzer he pressed. Maybe Mrs. D will answer. Come on..." She says as she and Hanna head to the panel of names.

Emily runs her finger down the list, '"Was it this one? Or was it, was it that one?" She asks Hanna stopping at a few.

An old man sneaks up behind them, "Who are you looking for?" They both turn around startled.

Emily opens her mouth to say something but no words come out. "Well, can I help you?"

" Umm... I... I... I heard that there might be a vacancy available for a sub-let. Sub-let?" Emily stumbles over her words fear getting the better of her.

" Who... who... who told you that, huh? But, who are you? A real estate agent? Get out of here" He screams at them. ." Now!" They turn and run back to the safety of Hanna's Car. " Both of youse. Go!" He yells as they go.

*******

Alison makes her way into the mausoleum with a hood hiding her blonde looks, in her hand a single red rose. She stops in front of the plaque with her name on it; she runs her finger across the words written on it. Tears starting to fall, she hears footsteps behind her and turns with a gasp.

"Did you follow me?" Alison asks fear in her voice, as she turns to look at Mona. "I'm not supposed to be out of my house, but I had to come here to say goodbye." Alison says as she turns to look at the plaque again. "The girl they made that for, she really is gone. I can't be that person anymore, Mona. I know you hated me and wanted me to go straight to hell. Going there is easy... it's the coming back that's hard..." Alison said emotion thick in her voice. "But you and me... we, we understand each other. I need you, Mona. As a friend." She says with her trademark Alison DiLaurentis smirk.

"The truth will bury you in a New York minute." Mona responds in a haunting manor. "In case you're wondering, that was me, I sent that text." She says with a glare staring right through Alison.

I guess I should have signed my name because I don't have to pretend to be anyone else anymore. I don't have to hide. You do." Hate dripping from her words as she takes the rose from Alison's hand.

"And you're gonna wish you stayed dead." Mona says as she walks away, leaving Alison in stunned silence.

After leaving the apartment building as quickly as possible Emily and Hanna head to Spencer's to meet Aria. They all have been trying to get a hold of Spencer to no avail so they all decided to meet there to check on her. When they get there they find out Spencer had spent the day with Toby and supposedly left her phone. After Emily and Hanna told Spencer about all that happened with Jason, they decided that Spencer should distract Mr. DiLaurentis so they could bring Alison to the Hastings' house.

Aria finally makes it to Spencer's and she is having a meltdown. "I'm going to the cops tonight, I have to. You guys... I... I can't hold on to this" Aria says freaking out.

"Aria, breathe." Hanna tells her trying to get her to calm down.

"Can you please wait and discuss this with all of us here?" Emily implores Aria.

"Where is Spencer?" Aria asks alarm filling her voice.

"She went next door to distract Mr. DiLaurentis so we could sneak Ali over here." Emily explains fear in her words, she won't feel better till she knows Ali's safe.

"She better haul ass because I'm guessing Jason is not making too many more stops tonight." Hanna says.

Aria interrupts her before she can make it worse. "Guys, please, enough with Jason for a minute. Mona knows that we were in New York. Don't you understand? Okay, it's only a matter of time before she runs out of whistles and start handing out balloons that say Aria killed Shana." Terror making her words come out strangled.

"Okay, whistles?" Hanna asksin confusion looking at Aria.

"Aria, stop. Okay. Mona does not know about Shana." Emily says trying to comfort her friend.

"Then who does? Who? Who is screwing with me? And you keep me telling me that "A" is dead. ", Aria says with desperation in her voice, she is tired of being hunted and haunted.

"'A' is dead, Aria." Hanna says trying to get Aria to really listen.

"Then why am I hearing a violin in my backyard? Who's the fiddler on my freaking roof?" She spits back in all consuming rage.

Emily grabs Aria's shoulder reassuringly, "Hey, Aria, listen to us. Jason was the one in New York. Once we can prove that he is a threat that made Ali tell that kidnapping lie then... "

Hanna cuts Emily off, "But how're we doing that?"

"I don't know, that's why we're having a meeting." Emily says throwing her arms up in defeat.

"Once the police are on to Mrs. D and Jason, then everything we've done can be explained and Alison can finally tell the truth." Emily tries to explain why it's important that they figure out what Jason's hiding.

Spencer makes her way up the steps to the DiLaurentis' house and as she knocks on the front door it swings slightly open. Spencer looks around the front yard and peers in the door, she pushs it open and enters the house. "Ali." She says as she enters the living room. "Hey you up there?" She looks around "Hello?" she says as she wanders further into the living room.

She hears a voice behind her, "It's late." Jason says from a chair by the window.

"She may be asleep." He says as he stands up, "Or did you come by to take out the trash?"

Spencer looks around nervously, "Jason... Were you in New York the night that Ali came back to Rosewood?" She asks smoothing her hair nervously.

"Why? Why is that important?" Jason asks wanting answers.

"I think you know why. If you're trying to make us squirm and run for cover because of something that you did... "

He interrupts her, "What is it you think I did?" he asks coming closer to Spencer. "

You think I'm the one who kidnapped her?" He asks surprise and hurt in his voice.

"Where did that theory come from, huh? My father?" He spits in disgust.

"No." Spencer answers honestly.

"Really?'Cause he's probably down at that precinct right now sharing that theory with the cops. Without my mother, who's gonna stop him?" He says with sadness, he would never hurt Ali.

" Jason, why were you in New York?" Spencer asks trying to get answers when the sound of a dog barking interrupts her thought.

Next door at the Hastings Emily followed by Hanna and Aria run out to see what is wrong with Pepe.

"Pepe. Pepe, what's wrong?" Emily says with concern.

"How did she know its name? Whose dog is that?" Aria asks completely out of the loop.

"Alison's." Hanna tells her.

"When did she have the time to get a dog?" Aria asks as she and Hanna follow Emily down to where Pepe is barking and whining.

The three scream in terror as they see a hand sticking up out of the ground. Emily covers her mouth in shock as Hanna puts her arm around her. Aria just stands there stunned.

"Oh, my God!" Emily cries in complete surprise.

Pepe stands next to the arm growling and barking. Spencer runs out to see what all the barking and growling is about. She looks down and sees Mrs. DiLaurentis' hand, "Jason. Don't... no... Jason." She tries to stop him but he pushes past her, his eyes clouding with sadness.

The police and coroner show up not long after Spencer calls 911. The girls watch in stunned silence as Mrs. DiLaurentis' body is zipped up in a bag. Emily starts having flash backs to the day she came home to find that Maya was being taken out of her backyard in a body bag. She shudders as the day that they found what they thought was Alison under the gazebo of her old house flashes through her mind as well. Emily couldn't stand all this lose, it was tearing her already fragile heart apart,

Alison just arriving back at her house and seeing flashing lights and people gathering behind Spencer's house she enters the Hastings' backyard. She stands back with her hood up trying not to be noticed as she feels her heart being ripped out, as she sees her mother being taken away in a body bag. She never even got a chance to say goodbye or ask her why she did what she did. And now she would never get that chance. She swallows thickly as the tears come as they walk by her with the body.


	15. Chapter 14

**I've had more time to write lately so I thought I'd give you another update. Thank you for the kind** **review** **Quindecim** **, I truly appreciate it. I hope everyone had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, or whatever you celebrate. Enjoy!**

She couldn't move, breathe, or feel anything but a black hole, she just lays there on her bed in the dark. Why didn't she come home sooner? Maybe, just maybe she could've protected her mother. She loses all track of time as she hears the sounds of people coming and going, eventually Jason and her father tell them she is not up to visitors. That was an understatement, she wished it was her who was buried in the backyard instead, then she wouldn't be the cause of all these loses. First whoever is buried in her grave, then Shana and almost Ezra, and now her mother, all those deaths and blood where on her hands. On top of all that she hadn't really seen much of Emily, she was a huge part of why she had returned because she had begged her to come home. Maybe it was better if she stayed away from Em; she couldn't stand something happening to her, not after almost losing her so many times. To be honest no one was safe while see was back in Rosewood. Who had she been kidding coming back; she didn't deserve any kind of happiness, especially with Emily not after everything. Minutes stretched into hours and then days, _Get yourself together DiLaurentis!_ She curses at herself for her weakness, if her mom could see her like this she'd tell her to suck it up and emotions are weakness and weakness can be preyed upon.

She decided she should probably get out of bed, when she heard the girls downstairs. _Shit, today is the funeral!_ She'd let herself spiral so far into the abyss she'd lost track of the days. Hanna comes up the stairs and offers to help Alison get ready, Alison nods at her still feeling empty and unable to speak. She stands in front of the dress she and Hanna decided on slightly lost in her own head when she hears a voice behind her, "Do you want me to help you get dressed?" Hanna asks gently not wanting to startle Alison.

"No." She says sadly, "Do you think there are gonna be a lot of people at the funeral?" She stares at the black dress kind of transfixed by it.

"I don't know." Hanna answers honestly; Mrs. D didn't have a lot of fans in Rosewood.

Alison breaks out of her trance and looks at Hanna, "You can go downstairs. I'll be there in a minute."

"Okay" Hanna says reassuringly as she turns and heads back downstairs to give Alison some privacy.

Alison takes on more look at the dress and throws it on her bed, she has an idea and decides to look in her mother's closet.

Downstairs Spencer, Emily, and Aria stand awkwardly in the living room listening to Mr. DiLaurentis and Jason snapping at each other. "I don't want to see any police... not at the funeral, not at the cemetery. No police, no press" He tells Jason pouring himself a brandy.

"I took care of it." Jason states with certainty.

"Did you?" He asks with disdain in his tone.

Yes, I did." Jason says trying to sound confident.

Hanna makes her way back towards the other three girls. "Hey, how is she?" Aria asks worried.

"She's getting dressed." Hanna says joining the girls.

"Yeah, but how is she?" Aria asks more pointedly.

"She's going to her mom's funeral. How do you think she is?" Hanna asks with a distant look in her eye, she was thinking how she would feel if she was in Alison's place.

"She's going to bury the woman who tried to bury her." Spencer states ironically.

"Question is who buried Ali's mom in Spencer's backyard?" Emily says staring daggers at Jason.

"It wasn't Jason." Spencer says assertively.

"What makes you so sure?" Emily asks her slightly suspicious.

Because I saw his face when... the dog found the body." Spencer says looking away, trying to push the memory out of her head.

"A dog who knows where the body was buried? That sounds exactly like 'A.'" Aria says with fervor.

"Dogs dig. Okay? That's just what they do. They just smell something and they dig." Spencer tells them, it just was a strange twist of fate.

"You didn't have to mention the smelly part." Hanna says looking away, trying to forget about finding Mrs. D a few days prior.

"Aria, 'A' is gone. You know that." Emily tells her gentle with reassurance in her voice.

"Yeah, 'A' might be gone, but we still have to deal with Mona." Spencer states obviously.

"She knows that Ali wasn't kidnapped." Hanna says with anxiety evident in her tone of voice.

"Got in Ali's face about it." Emily says feeling protective of Alison.

"She's not the only one we have to worry about." Spencer says looking around then at Aria.

"Noel Kahn?" She asks, "He's going to do whatever is best for Noel Kahn." She says with contempt.

"That's not who I was thinking of." Spencer states, Ezra was more of who she was thinking of but before she can say anything else, Alison emerges from the stairs.

"That's not the dress we picked out." Hanna says slightly stunned.

"That's not hers, but I've seen it somewhere." Spencer says trying to place where she's seen the dress before.

Alison enters the living room and her father walks toward her slightly agitated. "Why are you wearing that dress?"

"I wanted to wear something of Mom's to feel close to her. I got it out of her closet." She answers holding back the tears that are about to fall, she can't lose it, not now, not in front of all these people.

"Change it." He spits out harshly.

"Dad, Why?" Alison asks confused about what he was so upset over.

"Go upstairs and put on something else." He demands.

"We're late now." Jason tells him trying to break the tension as best as he can. Mr. DiLaurentis looks at Alison through squinted eyes and walks out. Jason looks apologetically at Ali as he follows Mr. DiLaurentis; he stops and looks at Spencer with unease.

Alison stands in shock for a moment and then walks down the few steps into the living room. "I just wanted to wear something of hers. Why is he so angry?" She asks with her voice shaking and tears threatening to fall.

"Ali, your mother wore that dress." Spencer states.

"I know." Ali says confession creasing her brow.

"She wore it to your funeral." Spencer tells her, realizing that Alison would have no way of knowing that. Understanding crosses Alison's face, when she snuck into her funeral she was so focused on Emily she didn't even realize that her mom wore that dress.

"We should go." Aria says as she walks toward Alison patting her on the arm reassuringly.

"Come on." She says putting her arm around Ali's back and walking with her toward the door.

"Coincidences happen." Emily says trying not to think about the odd irony of the situation.

"Yeah, all the time. They grow on trees, like coconuts. Just waiting for you to walk under them." Spencer answers mockingly as they leave Ali's house.

The funeral went fairly smoothly, no press or police showed up as Mr. DiLaurentis had wanted. Alison held up a stoic bravado throughout, not letting a tear fall during the service. Her mother would have been proud. Alison was force to sit through the service between her father and Jason, she would've much rather have sit with the girls or truth be told next to Emily. Emily was her rock, she always felt better, calmer in her presents. Her father didn't really give her much choice, when they entered the chapel he grabbed Alison arm and lead her to the "family" section. Family Alison thought laughingly, her dad could barely stand to look at her and Jason was all too happy to run away whenever he had the chance. The four girls felt more like family then her real family ever had. So she just sat there and grinned and bared it, _you can make it through this, it's just an hour._ She kept telling herself; unfortunately she couldn't see the girls form where they are sitting on the front row that was saved for the family of the deceased. She wishes desperately that she could see the beautiful brunette; she had been consuming her thoughts ever since that night in the theater that they almost kissed.

Aria, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily decided it was time to return to school begrudgingly. They felt like they were in a zoo on display, people staring and whispering as they passed. Their morning started with them all sitting in the principal's office telling them how happy they were all safe and they would do their best to protect them all from the press and outsiders. He lets them know though that there is only so much he can do, however, he needs them to do their part as well. He wanted them to try to keep disruptions at a minimum.

As they left the principal's office they headed to the courtyard to talk for a bit before classes started for the day. "Maybe coming back wasn't such a good idea." Emily says in anguish.

"We have to at least act like things are normal." Spencer stress to Emily as they head into the courtyard.

"This is your idea of normal?" Hanna asks laughingly, "When we were in New York, Ali's mom was killed and now we're in one of Ali's biggest lies ever."

"We can't pretend forever. Somebody's gonna connect all this to Shana." Emily states realizing that, they would have to build some more substantial lies before this all blows over.

"Yeah, probably Jenna." Hanna says rolling her eyes in disgust.

"I'm more worried about the people who already know that Ali was lying about New York." Spencer says with worry.

"Noel and Mona?" Emily asks skeptically.

"And Ezra." Spencer answers making eye contact with Aria.

"You know, somebody has to go talk to him and make sure he's gonna keep quiet about what really happened." She says looking knowingly at Aria.

"Not me." Aria says hastily and with resolve.

"Aria." Spencer says beseechingly.

"He's alive, he's safe, but we are over. You guys can ask me to do anything else, but you can't ask me to do that." She says looking at the other three before she walks away.

"Mr. DiLaurentis kept the cops away before the funeral, but that's over. I mean, it's not gonna take them long before they start punching holes in Ali's kidnap story. And when that happens, I mean, we have to have something real to give to the police to explain why Alison lied and why we backed her up." Emily says, getting tired of all these lies and wondering when it will finally be over.

"Real such as?" Spencer asks confusion covering her face; trying to think of what to do.

"Real as in who hit Alison that night and who killed Mrs. D." Hanna states knowingly.

"We're all thinking the same person." Emily says as if it couldn't be any clearer.

"Really, did you start reading minds?" Spencer asks frustration evident in her tone and face.

"Spencer, it has to be Jason." Hanna answers as if there could be any one else that Mrs. D would so willingly cover for.

"I told you, guys, I saw his face." Spencer tells the other two, willing them to understand it wasn't him.

"Hanna found the email where Mrs. DiLaurentis was telling him she couldn't protect him anymore." Emily tells Spencer arguing their case.

"Protect him from what?" Spencer says in slight anguish.

"He was the one who hit Alison that night." Hanna tells her as if it was a plain fact.

"We don't know that" Spencer says desperation in her voice.

"It makes sense. Mrs. D saw who hit Alison." Emily reiterates like it was the simplest answer.

"And what did she do? She covered up the crime." Hanna says with irritation at Spencer for making things so complicated.

"Who else would you have done that for?" Emily asks knowing that the only answer that made sense would be Jason.

Before Spencer can refute anything the bell rings. "We should probably go inside." She says as turn to leave.

"She doesn't think that Jason would do this." Hanna says shaking her head in disbelief.

"Jason's her half-brother. She's going to take some more convincing." Emily says with understanding.

"Do you want to do a trip to Philadelphia tonight?" She asks Hanna changing the subject slightly.

"What's in Philadelphia?" Hanna wonders.

"I want to know what's in that house Jason went to." Emily says hoping to find some answers.

"I can't tonight." Hanna says not making eye contact with Em.

"Why?" Emily asks slight confused, "Are you hanging out with Travis?"

"No. I have to be with Ali. I have to take her somewhere." Hanna says trying to maintain eye contact.

"Where?" Emily asks confused, why hadn't Ali asked her to take her.

"The funeral home." Hanna tells her as she turns and walks away.

Emily decides she should head to class as well but she was kind of hurt that Alison had asked Hanna for help instead of her.

The rest of the day went mostly uneventful except for the constant questions and strange looks as they walked to classes. Emily was headed down the stairs to her locker when she hit her books on a passing student and her notebook slid across the floor.

Paige bends down and picks it up and hands it to Emily with a tentative smile. "Sorry. I wasn't following you. I just saw you dropped that." She says trying to not seem like a stalker.

"Thank you." Emily says not making eye contact.

"I'm really sorry about what happened to Alison." Paige says slightly forced.

"Are you sorry about anything else?" Emily asks, she notices a girl staring at her from across the hall. Paige doesn't answer looking slightly guilty.

"I've had all the being-stared-at I can handle for one day." She says looking over Paige's shoulder.

Paige follows Em's eyes. "I'll take care of it. I know her. She's on the team, she just transferred in." She tells her like its no big deal.

"It's not important. Forget it." Emily says walking past Paige not looking at her as she goes.

As Emily gets some things out of her locker she notices the same girl still staring at her. She stares back and the girl turns away slightly embarrassed. Emily slams her locker closed and walks over to the girl. "Can I help you with something?"

"Sorry?" The girl says trying to play it off.

Emily will have no part of it, "People have been staring at me and my friends all day. So why don't you take a really good look, and we can all move on with our lives, okay? And, yes, I know the dead girl who isn't dead anymore. Okay?" She says with unabashed anger that she's been holding in all day.

"I was just looking at your trophies." She tells her slightly terrified at Emily's reaction.

"My what?" Emily asks clearly confused by the turn of events.

"The trophies in the case. You're Emily Fields; your name is on all the trophies. I figured out who you were when I saw you talking to Paige. I'm on the team with her. I'm Sydney Driscoll." She explains in a rush.

"Sorry for shouting." Emily says feeling bad for going off on her. She turns to leave when Sydney's next statement catches her off guard.

"I thought you'd be taller." She kind of yells out as she follows Emily.

"What?" Emily says with a slight laugh, taken aback.

"I mean, you're tall, but I thought you'd be taller. All the trophies. I figured you had an advantage." Sydney shrugs laughing nervously.

"Being tall helps, but not as much as everybody thinks." Emily tells her knowingly.

"They said you hurt your shoulder. That's why you're not on the team anymore. You must miss it." Sydney states as a fact rather than a question.

"Uh… I do." Emily says with sadness.

"Listen, I transferred 3 weeks ago, I'm bottom of the roster and I can use all the help I can get." Sydney says rushed feeling bad for bringing it up.

"What does that have to do with me?" Emily asks not sure what Sydney's expecting from her.

"Watch me in the pool. Fifteen minutes, and then tell me what you think. Please?" Sydney asks pleadingly.

Emily thought about it for a bit, it would be welcome distraction from all the drama with Alison. "How about tomorrow after school?"

"Sure…thanks." Sydney said with a smile.

Hanna and Alison drive in silence to the funeral home. They get out of the car and enter the now empty waiting area. "He could have just dropped the damn visitation book at my house." Alison says in annoyance.

"He said he wanted to meet you." Hanna says trying not to rile Alison up more.

"Everybody wants to meet me." Alison answers in disdain.

"God, I hate these places." She says building her walls back up behind her old temper.

"Nobody likes them." Hanna states obviously.

Alison spins around with anger, "Well, I hate them. My mom always wanted me to understand the fragile nature of life so she dragged me to all of my relatives' funerals starting from the time I was seven. All these people I didn't know standing around crying, me choking on the smell of flowers. God." A picture on the wall catches her attention… it's the same one from the warehouse. Fear starts to take a hold of her. "I'll be right back." She says as she rushes to the bathroom.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Hanna asks in concern over Alison's sudden change in demeanor.

"No." Alison says quickly before the tears can fall.

As she makes into the bathroom the tears start falling, she grabs the sink trying to hold in the sob that is trying to escape. The memories of Cy come crashing around her, the day he attacked her and gave her the scar that's prominent on her thigh. It burns with the memory, as she sets her hand on her jeans where the wound lied. She looks at herself in the mirror, _get it together you are a fucking DiLaurentis! You are not weak like this._ She splashes her face with water and dries her face before returning to the lobby. As she walks out she hears Hanna "I'm sorry, that's Alison DiLaurentis."

Alison makes her way over to stand next to Hanna, "Are you Mr. Donahue?" She asks extending her hand to shake his hand.

"Yes. I apologize." He says slightly taken aback. "Mr. Thorpe told me that Alison DiLaurentis was here and from the description I had I just assumed that... "

Alison interrupts him to save him any more embarrassment. "Oh, um, this is my friend Hanna. It used to be a little easier to tell us apart, wasn't it?" She says letting her inner bitch out to mask her momentary bit of weakness. She couldn't let her walls down, it made her to vulnerable.

***********

Emily meet Sydney outside the locker room, they headed in and Sydney tells Emily, "I watched your videos. I'm trying to match your stroke rate."

"My stroke rate won't work for you." Emily explains.

"Because you're taller than me?" Sydney asks her slightly confused.

" No, it's not the height, it's your ratio." Emily tells her.

" Of what to what?" Confusion covers her face.

" Well, what's your Ape Index?" Emily asks Sydney.

" My what?"

"Stand up against the locker," Emily says with a slight giggle and a smile playing on her face, "touch the floor with your middle finger. Okay, now reach up with your other hand and stretch out as far as you can."

Paige reaches up and marks where Sydney's fingers lay. "Now stand up with your back against the locker." She says catching Emily's eye and smiling. Emily swallows nervously. "It's about 3 inches."

"Your Ape Index is negative three." Emily tells her with a little smile.

"Should I be taking something for that?" Sydney laughs with unease.

"No, no, it just means that your reach is 3 inches less than your height." Emily says as her smile falters as she looks at Paige.

"So?" Sydney asks curiously.

"So if you don't have long arms, don't copy swimmers who do." Paige says looking at Emily. "Emily has great arms" She says tension building between the two. . "For swimming." She adds deliberately

"Just adjust your stroke rate." Emily says trying to ignore Paige's blatant remarks.

"Did you two spend a lot of time together?" Sydney asks picking up on the slight sexual tension between the two, adding as an afterthought. "Training?"

"Not really." Emily says looking at Paige shaking her head.

"Not one-on-one." Paige says with a knowing smile cross her lips.

"But we were together." Emily stutters adding, "In the pool."

"And out." Paige adds pointedly.

"In and out." Emily adds frustrarted.

"Of the pool." Paige adds suggestively.

"Right." Sydney says with understanding.

"Well, I'm gonna change now." She tells them looking back and forth between the two with a snicker.

Emily and Paige exchange a look and Emily shrugs her shoulder and walks out of the locker room.

Alison sent Aria a text to meet her at the shed that they told the police Alison stayed at. "So what did he say?" Alison asks Aria anxiously.

"He heard about the story of you being kidnapped." Aria explains.

"And?" Alison asks needed to know if he would tell a different story.

"And he said he's not gonna say anything different if anyone asks." Aria tells her trying to calm down her nerves.

"Good. That's one less problem." Alison says with relief. "Does he know... about Shana?" She asks searching Aria's expression.

"No." She answers looking at the ground in shame.

"It's better that he doesn't." Alison reassures her that she's doing the right thing.

"Look, Mona thinks that you're coming back to Rosewood High." Aria says as much a question as a statement.

"Does she?" Alison asks with a smirk.

"Yeah. She could really create some trouble if you did. Mona and Ezra know that you weren't kidnapped, Ali." Aria says in concern for Alison well being.

"But Ezra doesn't look at the world the way Mona does. Ezra's not a bad guy, Aria. He's just too romantic for his own good. That's probably why you fell for him." Alison tells Aria, she wants her to forgive Ezra and give him another chance. He deserves happiness, even if she herself does not.

"Okay, I really don't need you analyzing my personality right now." Aria said angrily as she turned and dug something out of her bag. "Here! This is what you asked for. Keep it. Burn it. I don't care"

She asks with a sigh, "Do you need anything else?"

"Shana tried to kill Ezra, and she would have killed all of us if you didn't stop her" Alison tries once more. Aria looks away and then asks again, "Do you need anything else?"

"No" Alison answers looking down dejectedly.

Aria looks at her one last time and then walks out of the shed.

After reading the manuscript Alison knew she needs to talk to Ezra. She heads to his apartment and knocks on his door. He opens it in surprise and steps out of the door way to let Alison enter. "I'm glad you were on that roof. You saved us. Thank you." She says as she walks around his apartment.

"You're welcome." He says standing stiffly.

"We were scared that you were gonna die, Ezra." She lets him know.

"So was I." He answers honestly.

"I'm glad you didn't." She says with a bit of relief in her tone.

"Why are you here, Alison, with that?" He says pointing to his book she had dropped on his table.

"Aria let me read it." She tells him as she picks it up and leafs through the pages "I was looking for something."

"Did you find it?" He asks with unease in his voice.

"Not all of it. Not what I need to know if I'm gonna stay alive." She states as Ezra looks away with discomfort.

"There's more, isn't there?" He moves from foot to foot avoiding her eyes apprehensively.

"All the watching, all the listening that you did." He final looks her in the eyes.

"You didn't destroy all of it. You couldn't have." She says knowing him all too well.

"If there was anything left, the only thing preventing me from burning it is the possibility that it would help Aria, if she would let me help." He tells her with sincerity in his eyes.

"Well, then you better keep it in a safe place." She tells him with a smile, raising her eyebrows as she picks up her purse and heads to his door.

"Did Aria know you were coming here?" He asks looking in her eyes as she turns toward him.

"No." She tells him with a slight shake to her head.

"Tell her." He says knowingly.

"Absolute honesty?" She asks locking eyes with him.

"That's all I got left." He admits with defeat.

"I hope it's enough." She says with authenticity as she closes his door behind her.

She makes her way down the stairs and out the doors toward the street and heads home. As she is passing an alley she hears someone call her name. "Alison?" Mr. Hastings asks in a questioning tone as he crosses the street.

"Hey, I thought that was you. Wasn't sure." He says with a smile.

Alison turns and looks at him as he gets closer. "Hello, Mr. Hastings." Alison says politely, crossing her arms protectively over her.

"How are you doing? You holding up?" He asks looking concerned.

"I'm fine. Thanks." She says looking around with a bit of fear.

"That's good." He answers following to see what she was looking at.

"I'm a little surprised to see you out here all by yourself."

"I can't hide in my room forever. Even if I'm still scared I have to get out or else I never will." She says more confidently than she feels.

"Yeah, but you have police at the house, right?" He asks her with unease.

"I do." She answers and adds, "But I know my way around this town better than any cop. I can get out if I want to." She says looking from side to side and raising her eyebrows with self-assurance on her face.

"Yeah, maybe, but under the circumstances, I think it'd be a good idea if I gave you a ride home." He says kind of darkly, Alison looks at him unsure. With slight hesitation she takes him up on his offer, truth be told she was starting to get a bit scared walking outside alone.

Emily returned home frustrated that going back to the apartment in Philly with Hanna hadn't really panned out. As she pulled her car up in front of her house she sees a familiar face sitting on her front door step. She looks away with slight agitation and heads toward Paige.  
"Does my mom know you're out here?" She asks slight annoyance in her voice as she walks closer to Paige.

"She said I could wait inside. I told her I was okay here." Paige tells her as she stands up and walks toward Emily.

"Your mom knows we're fighting." She says as she stops in front of Em.

"We're not fighting. We're done fighting." Emily tells her barely able to look at her.

"Which makes us what?" Paige asks her voice slightly rising.

"We go to the same school, we used to be teammates, maybe we'll be friends." Emily answers with a smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes.

Paige looks away for second, fighting tears. "I practiced what I'm gonna say to you. Did you know that?" She says as her voice breaks.

"I talked to myself the whole way over here. I'm pretty convincing. Then I get to this porch and I forget everything." She says with a scoff of frustration.

"All I can say is, "I love you." She looks down fighting to hold herself together and not let the tears fall.

"Like if I say it just right, it'll fix things. Somehow you'll hear it differently this time and everything will be all right." She's just barely holding it together as Emily looks at her with anger creasing her brow.

"I'm sorry." Emily says in a slightly irritated tone.

Paige is staring at the ground and looks up at Emily, "That doesn't sound very good."

"I better go." She says as she walks past Emily.

Emily furrows her brow in thought and turns, "Paige... ", She says waiting for her to turn back around, "You deserve the best of everything." She tells her genuinely.

"That's what I had." Paige answers with regret as she turns and leaves.


	16. Chapter 15

After everything that's happened in the past few days Alison decides it is time for a change, she grabs a box and heads to her room. She looks through her clothes and starts pulling things off hangers and throwing them in the box. She heads downstairs with the box and walks in the living room. "Hey. There's waffles if you're hungry." Her dad tells her as she sets down the box on the coffee table.

"What you got there? He asks her as he turns around to look at what she set down.

"Clothes for Goodwill." She says as she sits down and starts folding the clothes.

"Al, do you think it's a good idea to hold off for a bit? I wouldn't want you to give away something of your mom's that you might regret later on." He says with apprehension.

"These aren't mom's. They're mine." She states briskly.

"I feel like I needed a clean slate." She tells him wanting to forget about the past two years and start fresh.

"Okay. But do you feel like you're rushing this a bit?" He asks as he moves to sit down next to her.

"It might be nice to have some familiar things." He tells her trying to be understanding.

"I've grown out of this stuff already. I'm not the same person I was 2 years ago." She says with emotion breaking her voice. "Oh, I need some things before I go back to school. Notepads, a new backpack." She tells him trying to change the subject.

"School?" He asks with a mix of confusion and surprise.

"I can't stay in my room forever. It's not helping" She tells him with determination. "And I need to go back if I want to graduate before I'm 30." She says rolling her eyes at the thought of how behind she already is.

"I want you to have that fresh start that we're talking about. But I really don't see how that's possible if we stay here." He tells her trying to break it to her gently.

She asks him with confusion and shock, "You want to move?"

"No. No, I need my friends." She tells him with desperation evident in her voice.

"Well, you'll still see them. The place I moved into isn't that far away. Maybe the girls can come and spend the summer." He tells her with a small smile at the idea.

"Dad. Please." She almost begs, tears barely contained.

"Don't. I can't have my friends taken away from me, too." She tells him trying to get him to understand that she just got them back, she can't lose them already. Emily has already been avoiding her; she can only imagine how much worse it would be if she moved.

While the girls were busy at school Alison tracked down Cyrus with the help of Noel, he was holed up in some roach infested motel barely alive, he hadn't eaten for days and was extremely sick. Alison rented him a room and took him to the hospital for antibiotics. She told him he owed her and that she would be calling in the favor soon as she threw him a phone and walked out.

Emily has been spending most of her free time lately at the pool helping Sydney improve. She decided it's easier than dealing with her mom's constant questions and Alison. She'd been avoiding Alison at all cost as it was just too confusing to be around her at the moment. Every time she sees her, she feels like she is in junior high all over again, Ali still had such a huge affect on her.

She and Sydney had just finished training for the day and head into the locker room.  
"58 seconds? That's all? It felt like I was flying." Sydney says in disbelief.

"Yeah, your technique is so much better though." Emily says as she writes something down in her notebook.

"Let's just keep working on increasing your strength. You want to meet up tomorrow?" Emily asks her walking to her locker.

"Yeah. I have to check in with my family, but it should be cool." Sydney says running her fingers through her hair.

"Oh, right. It's Saturday." Emily says not even realizing what day it is.

"Do you need to..." Sydney tries to ask her something.

Emily interrupts her, "No, I can still make it. I'm pretty much doing everything I can to avoid spending time at home." Emily tells her honestly, she just wants to be left alone without a million questions.

"What's going on?" Sydney asks worried.

"Besides my mom giving me the third degree? Nothing." She says with a slight frustrated laugh.

"Ever since my friend Ali came back all my mom does is ask me questions. And when she's not asking me questions, she's staring at me, waiting for me to talk." She tells Sydney with emphasis on talk.

"So I've started taking extra long showers just to get away from her. When the hot water runs out, I'm screwed." She says with a small smile looking down at the things in her hands.

"It's kind of natural though for her to have questions." Sydney says crinkling her eyebrow with a nervous laugh.

"I would never ask mine, but it doesn't mean I don't have them." She says putting her hand on her chest and shaking her head a little.

"What time tomorrow?" She asks Emily trying to change the subject before it gets more awkward.

Emily's phone rings, its Alison, Em hits the button to ignore the call. She's just not ready to deal with all the feelings having Ali back brings up. Besides, Ali can never give her what she wants, she is straight.

"Let's meet up same time as today." Emily tells her backing out of the locker room.

"Oh. Sorry." She tells Paige as she almost bumps into her as she's leaving.

"No problem." She tells her with a bit of sadness as she walks past Emily into the locker room.

Emily sighs and heads down the hall to lunch.

She carries her lunch tray outside to meet Spencer, Hanna, and Aria who are already sitting down talking.  
"Hey." Emily says to them as she walks over to sit.

"Hey." Aria says looking around at everyone staring at them.

Emily looks around concerned as well.

"Oh, my God. Guys. She is seriously freaking me out." Arai says looking over at Mona and then back towards the three girls.

"She knows that we were in New York. She threatened Ali. What if she knows about Shana, too?" Aria says in rushed whisper, starting to freak out.

"Aria, look, you need to take a psychological selfie right now. You're letting your paranoia get the better of you." Spencer says trying to calm down her nerves.

"Really? How do you know that all this isn't all about Shana?" Aria asks pointing her thumb towards Mona.

"Because it's not. It's all about Ali. I've been fielding questions about her all day." Spencer tells her sardonically.

"Yeah, me, too. Some people have been nice about it, I guess." Emily says rolling her eyes.

"Some people have been rude about it. This girl in P.E. asked me if it was true if Ali was fed raw meat." Hanna says in disgust.

"What did you say?" Spencer asks curiously.

"Nothing." Hanna said innocently, "I just bonked her over the head with a dodge ball."

All their phones beep at once, they all look around with panic.

"Oh, my God." Aria says looking at Spencer.

"It can't be." Emily says in a defeated tone.

"It isn't. It's Ali." Spencer tells them with a bit of relief.

"This is intense." She says reading the text, "She's saying that because there were no obvious signs of struggle, they're gonna have to wait for the coroner's toxicology results to determine her mom's cause of death."

"The cause of death? It was murder. Duh." Hanna says as if it should be blatantly obvious.

"Maybe the cops think that she was poisoned." Aria says offering a theory.

"How do they know that she wasn't buried alive?" Hanna asks gentle.

"We don't have to pretend like she wasn't found in my backyard." Spencer states plainly.

"We know your family had nothing to do with what happened to Ali's mom, Spence." Emily states reassuringly.

"Of course not. I mean if they killed her, they wouldn't make a bonehead move like burying her in their own flowerbed." Hanna says trying to be helpful but not with very much tact.

"Hanna, it's not helping." Aria says staring daggers.

"Yes, it is." Hanna reiterates.

Alison lay on her bed thinking… _why didn't Emily answer her call?_ She was starting to really miss her after spending so much time with her in the theater and on the bus. Now it felt like she had been avoiding her at all costs. She decides to try to text her instead.

Can you call me back.

Please? –Alison

Her dad comes into her room, "Hey." He says to get her attention.

"You hungry?"

"Not really." She says sitting up and putting her phone down.

"I got another call from Detective Holbrook today. They need you to come in for that medical exam." He tells her with regret,

"What did you tell him?" Alison asks with tears starting to fall.

"I was able to postpone it before because of your mom, but we can't put it off forever." He grabs the chair from her desk and sits next to her bed.

"I know it's difficult. But it's important. And I'm gonna be right there on the other side of that door." He hates to see her upset.

She looks away from him, "Dad, I don't want to go."

She turns to look at him tears failing "Dad, please don't make me", she says her voice breaking.

"Sweetheart, I'm sorry." He says in a whisper. "I haven't wanted to push you to talk." He says looking away from her. "But if you were... hurt... you need to tell someone" His voice breaks as he starts to tear up.

"Nothing like that happened, Dad." Alison says with conviction. She just doesn't want to talk about someone bashing her head with a rock and her mother burying her alive or the wound she had received on her thigh.

She can't stand to see her father this upset; she reaches her hand out and grabs his hand, "You know, I actually do think I'm hungry. I'd love a sandwich."

"Coming right up." He tells her, glad to be able to do something.

As he heads for her door he turns to her, "I know you said you needed some new clothes. I want you to buy whatever you like, okay?"

She shakes her head and puts on a small smile as he walks out. She sits on her bed and lets the tears fall and the sobs rack her body. After falling apart for long enough, she grabs her phone and texts the only person she had gotten close to other than Emily.

Ali: Hey, Trevor sorry I left without saying goodbye.

Trevor: OMG…I've been so worried about you. The glass window in front of the store was shot out! I thought something terrible happened to you sweetie.

Ali: It's a long story and one day I will explain all of it, promise.

Trevor: The police were poking around asking a lot of questions… I didn't mention anything to them about you! I know you said you were running from some bad things.

Ali: Thank you Trevor, you are a great friend, I miss you. It's been lonely without you.

Trevor: Where are you? Are you safe?!

Ali: I'm home and mostly.

Trevor: Have you seen Em?

Ali: Yes and it's extremely complicated!

Trevor: You NEED to tell her how you feel Ali!

Ali: I know…I'm gonna lay down for a bit.

Trevor: Okay, love ya doll!

Ali: Love you too, Trevor!

She lies on the bed and is starting to get scared she hasn't been able to get a hold of any of the girls. She decides to try Hanna one more time. "Hey, Ali." Hanna says finally picking up her phone.

"Where is everyone?" She yells in anger trying to build her walls back up.

"You're the first person to pick up." She can't show how scared she truly is, not now.

"I'm going in for medical exam tomorrow and I don't want to go alone. Can you please come with me?" She asks Hanna taking a shaky deep breath.

"Yeah, sure. When should I pick you up?" Hanna asks feeling a little bad for Ali.

"In about an hour…. And thank you Hanna." Alison adds trying to be a little nicer.

"No problem, see you soon." Hanna says before hang up.

Emily walks into the locker room looking for Sydney. She doesn't see her so she heads to where she knows Sydney's locker is but stops "How's it going?" Paige asks.

Emily interrupts, "I'm just waiting for..."

Paige interjects helpful, "I was just gonna say you're doing a great job with Sydney. She's gotten a lot better. It's really generous of you to work with her on a weekend."

"Yeah, it's nice just to hang out with someone who sees me more than just a friend of dead-girl-walking." Emily says with a bit of frustration in her tone.

"How is Ali?" Paige asks shrugging.

"I don't know. It's hard to know what to ask or what to say." Emily starts but Sydney walks in.

"So sorry I'm late." She tells Emily.

"Hey, Paige." She says with a smile noticing her next to Em.

"Hey." She says in response to Sydney.

"See you around." She says to Em dejectedly.

"Um… Do you want to join us?" Emily asks her before really thinking it through.

"Yeah. Come with us. We were going to do sprints on the track." Sydney adds like it was no big deal.

"Really?" Paige looks at Emily.

"Okay. Let me just get some water." She says with a smile.

After their work out they showered and changed and decided to go out for pizza.

They exit the pizza shop and sit at a table out front. "This is too hot." Emily says setting her pizza down and taking a seat.

"I don't care if it burns the roof of my mouth, I'm starving." Sydney says sitting down to the right of Emily.

Paige sat to her left. "Mm-hmm." She agrees taking a bite.

"Oh, I don't know how you can eat that." Emily says looking at Paige.

"Mine's actually not that hot." She tells Em.

"No, it's gross. Ranch and buffalo chicken?" She says with a hint of disgust.

"Well, you know what they say, don't knock it until you try it." Sydney says shrugging.

"Oh, I have tried it. Remember?" She says smiling at Paige.

"You made me after Anna Nordberg's party last fall." She rolled her eyes still smiling.

"Oh, that did not turn out so good." Paige says with a smile and a laugh remembering the night.

"No, it didn't." Emily says laughing as well.

"I'll eat anything except spray cheese. If it's day-glo orange and from a can, not going in my mouth." Sydney says joining in on the laughter.

Emily notices Paige staring off at something and then she seems to just shut down.

Alison had been in the doctor's private office for a good hour talking about what happened during the time she was kidnapped. After that he had her go into an exam room and change into a gown.

The doctor entered the room and asks if she would be more comfortable if Hanna left the room. She told him that she would really like her to stay.

"Take a deep breath for me. And another. Good. You have quite powerful lungs, young lady." The doctor tells her as he removes the stethoscope from his ears.

"Now if you'll tilt your head, so I can take a look at the place where you were injured." He says as Hanna looks away nervously.

"I want you to come back in again for an X-ray. The scar tissue may have trapped particles from whatever caused the wound." He tells her as he gentle prods at the wound.

Emily text the girls to meet at her house so she can run by them what happened with Paige.

"We were laughing and joking and then out of nowhere she totally shuts down." Emily tells the girls as she puts some clothes on her bed.

"Well, maybe Paige is scared of getting too close and getting rejected again." Aria offers as she sits on Em's bed drinking coffee.

"I don't know if it's that." Emily says her forehead creasing in frustration.

"What?" She asks feeling Aria stare at her.

"Nothing." Aria tries to play it off.

"No, say it." Emily tells her looking perplexed.

"It's just I can't help but notice that you've been kind of MIA about Ali." Aria says as Emily starts to fidget.

From the corner of the room, Spencer adds to Aria, "So have you."

"Yeah, that's why I've noticed."

"We'll get to me in a second." She tells Spencer.

"I haven't seen you making any frequent trips over there either, by the way." She says pointedly at Spencer.

"Her mom was found buried in my backyard." She says looking at Aria returning her pointed look.

"Okay, wait, can we back up a second? What are you saying?" Emily asks looking at Aria.

"You think that I'm scared to get close to Ali again?"

Aria sits there and thinks about it for a minute. "Do you still have feelings for her?"

Emily is caught off guard. "I don't know." She says looking away, "I really don't."

Spencer and Aria look at her waiting for her to continue. "It's crazy, isn't it? We've wanted this for so long, a life without 'A' and Ali back. I thought everything would feel like it did before. But it doesn't." She says with a hint of sadness.

"Em... after what happened with Nate," Aria asks trying to change the subject and also curious, "did you, like, find yourself wanting to know everything about him?"

She stands there and swallows a lump in her throat, "I received a package from Nate's mom. I was kind of obsessed with it. I kept thinking what it must have felt like for her to write my name... the person who had taken her son away from her. And I studied the printing... kept imagining all the places where I felt that her hands might have shaken." She says with a small smile that doesn't reach her eyes, but is more out of nervousness.

Aria looks away with a haunted look as Spencer looks at Aria with concern.

The doctor moves to looking in Alison eyes, "Good." He says turning the light off and putting it in his lab coat pocket.

"Can you lie back for me please?" He checks her stomach for any abnormalities. "You can sit back up." He tells her as she looks at Hanna with a slight terrified look.

"If you scoot down to the edge of the table so that I can get a better look at this." He says pointing to her thigh wear the scar is.

"There's no mention of this injury on the police report." He says looking through his papers.

"I didn't mention it, 'cause I didn't think it was important." Alison says looking down in shame. Hanna readjust uncomfortable in the corner, her eyes widen when she sees the scar.

"It's a significant injury. How was it sustained?" He asks, she looks down again not wanting to relive that night.

"How did you get hurt?" He tries again.

"I cut it on a rock when I jumped out of the car." She says not making eye contact with him or Hanna.

"Are you saying this was from a month ago?" He asks looking at her but she wouldn't meet his gazes.

"Are you sure? Scarring is more consistent with a slice rather than a puncture. Like from the blade of a knife or..."

"I cut it on a rock." Alison says a little forcefully. "Maybe there was some metal on it or something. I don't know. I mean, it all happened so fast." She says her voice breaking.

"I didn't even feel it. I didn't even know I was hurt until I looked down and I saw the blood." She says putting her walls up even higher. "How was I supposed to remember? I was blindfolded when it happened. Didn't the police tell you that on the reports?" She says her voice become higher as she starts to panic.

"Are we done here?" Hanna asks clearly frustrated with all the questions.

"I still need the nurse to do your blood work. And we also have to set up a time for you to see a trauma counselor." He tells Alison troubled.

The nurse comes in and draws a few vials of blood and tells Alison she can get dressed and she will be back with some papers to sign. Hanna turns and faces the wall as Alison finishes get dressed. The nurse knocks on the door and Alison's tells her to come in. She signs the papers and the nurse leaves.

Alison finishes buttoning her sleeve.

"Are you okay?" Hanna asks with concern.

"Yeah." Alison barely whispers, shrugging her shoulders.

"I can drive to Longbrook tonight. Get us food from that Chinese restaurant that you like." Hanna suggests trying to make Ali feel a bit better.

Alison gives her a weak smile and nods as she digs in her purse and pulls out a recorder. "What's that?" Hanna asks quietly.

"Can you take this? Give each of the girls a copy. They need to memorize it." Alison tells Hanna urgently.

"You recorded that?" Hanna asks looking at her with unease creasing her brow.

"Hanna, people have been asking a lot of questions. We need to keep our story straight." Alison says imploring Hanna to do it.

"Ali, I was here the whole time." Hanna says confused why she needs the recording.

"No, you weren't. I was in this office like a half hour answering questions before the exam even started." Alison tells her looking distraught.

"Well, even so, I mean, who's going to ask you questions about that?" Hanna asks her, shaking her head.

"Somebody will, somebody always does. And if it's not Holbrook it's gonna be someone else. Look, if they think I'm lying about this, it's not gonna be long before we're all answering questions about New York." Alison is starting to panic slightly as she tries to get Hanna to understand that they all HAVE to be on the same page.

Hanna reluctantly takes the recording and puts in her purse. She folds her arm defensively and looks at Alison with sadness, "Ali, where did that scar come from?" She can't quite look her in the eyes when she asks.

"The one on your thigh." Alison's face falls, she really doesn't want to relive that night.

"I know it's not from you being blindfolded and jumping out of a car. So how did you get it?" Hanna asks her with real concern.

Alison is so uncomfortable it takes her a minute to answer. "I wish I was blindfolded when I got that scar."

"Did someone do that to you?" Hanna can't bear the thought, then she wonders, "Did you do it to yourself?"

"Hanna, once you know something, you can't unknown it. Believe me, I wish I could." She says her eyes haunted by the memory of the knife and thinking he was going to kill her there and then.

Alison sends Spencer a text to meet at her house so she can tell Spencer about the coroner's report. Alison has gotten lost in thought looking at all the messages that have been posting up about her. Some of them are sweet but most of them are mean and cruel, just like how she used to be. She can't help but keep reading them and know she deserves all of this, she is-was a terrible person. She didn't even hear Spencer come in, "Hey, what's going on?" Spencer asks her as she rounds the corner of the living room.

She walks over to Alison to see what she is so intently staring at. "What is this?"

"Ali, no. Don't, don't look at that." She says taking the laptop and closing it as she sets it down on the table. She sits in the chair next to Alison with alarm.

"Maybe I should leave. It was stupid to think I could get a new life by just coming back from the dead." Alison says in a broken tone.

"Is that what your text was about?" Spencer asks her gently not wanting to pry too much.

"You're thinking about not staying here?" She asks her worry covering her features.

"No. We got the tox screen back from the coroner." Alison says finally looking at Spencer.

"You did?" She asks looking away in thought before adding, "What did it say?"

"Someone messed with her pills." Ali says with sadness. "She had low blood pressure. They found Losartan in her system, which is for the opposite problem." Alison tells her trying to control her emotions.

"It stopped her heart." Tears are building in her eyes.

She looks at Spencer, who gasps, "Spencer?" Spencer shakes her head trying to speak.

"What's wrong? What just happened?" Alison asks her in concern as Spencer fidgets and takes deep breathes.

"Did you think your dad did it?" She asks soothingly her voice breaking; Spencer shakes her head yes because she can't speak. "It's hard, isn't it, thinking that your parent could be capable of something like that." Both are trying to hold back tears now.

"I know." She looks at Spencer understandingly. "I keep trying to find a good enough reason that my mom could just watch someone kill me and let them walk away." Tears starting to escape she stops before they fall.

"It's just there have been monsters under my bed for so long." Spencer starts, tears starting to fall, "And now when they're not there anymore, I feel like I have to create them."

"There's still monsters out there, Spence. They just... they might not be under our beds." The tears fall from Alison's eyes as well. They look at each other with understanding in their eyes.

Emily is at home getting ready to head upstairs when she hears a timid knock at her door. She opens the door and Paige turns around, "Hey. Do you want to come inside?" Emily asks her politely with a shrug.

"I can't stay long." She tells Emily regrettably.

"What's wrong?" Emily asks her worry masking her face.

"I think if Alison comes back to school, you should keep your distance." Paige tells her in a vaguely warning tone.

Emily rolls her eyes in frustration. "Maybe it wasn't a good idea for us to hang out today."

"It has nothing to do with us, Em. People are preparing for Ali's return and it's not with flowers and "welcome home" banners." She tells her before turning to walk away.

"What are you saying?" She asks Paige as she follows her.

Paige stops and turns back toward Emily, "I'm saying your friend hurt a lot of people, me included. And I'm not interested in continuing that, but I'm also not going to out the people who feel like they need to protect themselves." She says angrily and turns to walk away again.

"O-Okay," Emily stutters trying to think. "Paige, wait." She follows Paige to the end of her yard. "Paige." She doesn't even turn around as she walks down the street.

As Emily watches her leave, she hears a rustling in the bushes across the street. She turns and heads back inside a little terrified.

Emily decides she needs to go to Alison's; it might not be such a good idea for her to go back to school.

She knocks on the DiLaurentis' door and Ali's dad lets her in and tells her Ali's up in her room.

Emily enters Alison's room and sits on her bed while Alison shows her some of the things she got for school. She show's Em her new backpack "My dad got it for me." She says with a smile, sitting across for Emily.

"It's nice." Emily tells her avoiding her intense blue eyes.

"Yeah, he's finally coming around to the idea of us staying here." She says with relief.

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that." Emily starts slightly uncomfortable.

"Maybe your dad was right": She can't stand the thought of someone hurting Ali.

"Maybe it would be a good idea for you to start over somewhere else."

"What?" Alison asks, clearly hurt.

"I just don't think it's safe." Emily says instantly regretting hurting her.

"Emily, where have you been? I walked into that police station because you convinced me to come home." Alison says exasperated, she knew it was too good to be true that Emily wanted her around.

"I know, okay. And I want you here." Emily tries to stress.

Alison cuts her off, "Are you sure? Because it doesn't feel like it." She says angrily her walls building back up.

"I'm going back to school. And if we just stick together, everything is gonna be fine." She says her voice quivering.

"Did Hanna give you that recording?" Alison asks trying to keep her voice calm.

"Yeah. And I'll memorize it." She tells her with apprehension, making the dimple show above her eyebrow. "But this is the last time, Ali." She tells her beseechingly.

"Okay? I mean it." She says with no room for discussion.

Alison looks slight hurt and confused as Emily gets up and walks out. This isn't the same Emily that she could control anymore; Emily had grown and become so much stronger. Stronger than Alison had ever been, it made her a little sad that she had missed Em's transformation into a strong beautiful women.

Alison decided to go back down stairs and look at more of the messages on her laptop, after all she was that terrible monster every one hated after all. She made Emily push her away this time and it was eating her alive. I guess I am meant to be alone! She thought, how could anyone love me anyway.


	17. Chapter 16

**Enjoy! Please, please review!**

"You know that favor….yeah I'm calling it in."

Alison stood outside her dad's real estate office in downtown Rosewood waiting. Finally a rundown SUV pulls up and the window rolls down. "It's about damn time, Cy!" Alison yells leaning in to talk to him.

"What do you want Alison?" He asks her leery.

"I need you for an alibi…don't worry I will give you plane ticket to where ever you want to go." She tells him sensing his apprehension.

"I'm listening." He tells her, curiosity getting the better of him.

She explains to him the whole kidnapping story and how she is going to lead the police to him, however once they catch him she will not name him and after the 48 hour hold they will have to release him.

"It sounds too risky" He tells her panicking.

"Cy unless you want me to let Noel get a hold of you for the incident….I suggest you take the offer."

As she tells him her voice shakes with rage and she hears, "Alison?" She turns and see's Aria and Ezra walking towards her.

She looks at Cy with a resigned look and he takes off. "Just go, I'll text you the details later."

Alison walks toward the pair with a smile, "Is this a date?"

" No. No." They say at almost the same time.

"Ali, what are you doing? Who was that?" Aria says with concern.

"Oh, my dad forgot my enrollment forms on his desk. And he's stuck at home on a call, so his flunky dropped me off." Aria and Ezra both look at the office sign behind them that reads DiLaurentis Real Estate. "I guess school is the kind of thing that my mom handled." She says with sadness.

As the stand there a bus pulls to a stop across the street from them. "I haven't had a chance to say how sorry I am about your mom." Ezra tells her as they hear the hissing of the doors and the familiar sound of a cane hitting the ground. As the bus pulls away Jena is standing there seemingly staring right at Alison and Aria. They both stand there with a feeling of dread overwhelming both of them.

The girls meet at Aria's house to decide what to do about Jenna coming back to town. Toby also knows that Shana is dead because Jenna called him and told him. They know that "A" is dead but are afraid that Jenna is taking over where Shana left off. Alison feels horribly responsible and doesn't want the four girls to put themselves out for her any more than they already have. She tells the girls that she's still working to earn back their trust and make amends to everyone she has previously hurt. She's not sure if that includes Jenna or not at this point,

The next day Alison gets up a bit early to get ready for school, figuring she'll need all the time she can get to prepare. After she had showered and dried her hair letting it fall in big loose curls she stands in front of her closet deciding what to wear of her new clothes that her father had just bought her. She decided on a fitted blue blazer style jacket over a multi-colored dress, and blue open toed heels. As she sits in front of the mirror in her room applying her war paint, she gives herself a pep talk."I've been through a lot worse. You can do this."

She takes one last look in the mirror and stands to leave grabbing her purse.

When she comes downstairs she tries to control her breathing, "Hey are you ready to go?" Her dad asks over the newspaper he was reading.

"Yeah, I think so." She tells him nervously adjusting her outfit.

"You look beautiful!" he tells her as he kisses her forehead. He grabs his keys and she follows behind a little reluctantly.

The car ride is relatively quite except the nagging voice of doubt in Alison's head. She was use to people starting at her when she was previously in school but now, this is completely different. Truth be told, she was terrified to walk up to the school alone. She would have loved to take up Emily on her offer to pick her up and bring her, but her dad seem to light up at the idea of taking her on her first day back.

"Alison!" Her dad says a little more forcefully, "we're here." He says with a tense smile.

As she reaches to open the door he adds, "If you need me to pick you up early, or it is all too much, just give me a call." He says not breaking eye contact,

"I will dad." Alison tells him painting on a fake smile.

As she makes her way to the front doors it feels like the entire school has decided to stay out front and talk. As she gets closer everyone stops talking and stares at her. She tries to shake off the eerie feeling of all eyes being on her. Several people make rude comments to and at her but she does her best to ignore them.

As she walks through she spots two of her poor victims Cindy and Mindy. She walks over to them with a friendly smile and gives them a heartfelt apology. She gives each of them a small hug and squeeze their arms as she walks toward her four friends.

Spencer gives her a smile as they walk to meet her.

"Ready?" Emily asks as her eyes light up at the site of Alison.

"Thanks for waiting for me." Alison tells them with relief but focusing mainly on Emily. She looks around at her friends and then takes a deep breath and looks at the school. She heads up and the stairs and the other four follow.

As she walks the hall surrounded by her friends, all eyes stop and stare, she use to love that. It made her feel so powerful but know it feels so foreign and uncomfortable. As they walk through everyone starts clearing a path for her and her friends, slight fear in their eyes. She looks down feeling shame and doubt; she looks over at Aria who gives her a reassuring smile.

As they make their way to the first classes of the day, Aria asks, "Ali, do you know where your first class is?" She asks with a bit of concern

"I'm supposed to go to the guidance counselor's office. But I can't remember where it is." She had been told to go to the counselors before she had disappeared but she always blew it off, so she wasn't exactly sure where to go.

"I've got chem lab. It's close. I can walk with you." Emily tells her slightly antsy.

"Thanks, Em." Ali says her arms crossed over her body feeling out of place

"Well, I hope you have a good first day back." Hanna tells her with a small smile of encouragement.

"Yeah. Call us if you need us." Aria tells her with kind eyes.

"We'll meet up for lunch, okay?" Spencer offers.

"Thanks. For everything." Alison tells them all with a smile.

Emily starts to walk off and Alison follows behind, she turns back to the other three flashing one last smile before catching up. Emily doesn't say much of anything as they walk and it's eating at Ali. How did they go from Emily wanting her back, to Emily almost avoiding her at all cost.

"Here you are." Em says pointing at the door for the counselor.

She started to take off when Alison reaches out and grabs her arm, feeling a slight spark as she touches her. Emily looked down at her hand obviously feeling it as well. "Thanks Em. I'll see you at lunch?" She asks hopefully.

Emily shakes her head yes as Alison heads into the counselor.

Emily, Hanna, and Aria sit outside with their lunches. Emily is on her phone, trying to get a hold of Spencer because no one had seen or heard from her since this morning. Ali was also missing because she was stuck in "guidance counselor hell" according to Em. Aria tells them she can swing by Spencer's to make sure she's ok because she was going to check on Jenna anyway. Hanna and Emily tell her they think it's a bad idea but Aria says she can at least be sorry for her loss as she storms away.

After swim practice Emily's talking with Sydney when Sydney tells her, "The glee club's sponsoring Frozen sing-a-long tonight." She says with a cheesy smile, showing Emily a flyer.

Emily takes the flyer smiling, "I think I'm more of an Adele Dazeem than Idina Menzel." She says Sydney's enthusiasm wearing off slightly on her.

"It's free pizza on a school night. You sure that doesn't trump 20 Questions with your mom?" Sydney saws knowingly waggling her brow.

"Is it okay if I hum?" Emily asks, she can't resist free pizza.

"I'll see you at 7?" She asks with the same cheesy smile as before.

"Yeah." Emily tells her as Sydney smiles in response and heads out.

As Sydney leaves Emily notices Paige. "I'm surprised you came to practice. I heard you went home early." She says walking towards Paige's locker.

"I wasn't feeling well. But it passed." She says gruffly looking at Emily.

"Are you sure you didn't leave because of Alison?" Emily tries to ask delicately.

"I know she's your friend, but even being in the same room with her makes me feel sick." Paige tells her putting on her button up shirt and then digging the rest of her things out of her locker.

"Well, if you're staying out of school to try and avoid her, then she still has power over you." Emily says trying to help her.

"Then she still has power over me..." Paige snaps and turns back to her locker, "because I can't stand to be in the same room with her."

Emily reaches out and touches Paige's arm. Paige closes her locker. "I hate seeing you so upset."

"I'm fine." Paige replies her voice shaking a little.

"No, you're not. You're one of the bravest people I know, and I'm not going to let you forget that." Emily tells her worrying creasing her forehead.

"There is only one way to remedy this." Emily tells Paige begging her to trust her.

Alison was waiting in Em's room when Paige and Emily enter. Emily stays by the door and asks Alison, 'Do you want me to leave?" Slightly pensive.

"It's okay if you stay." Alison tells her, not wanting to admit she really would like her to be there.

"Paige?" Emily asks looking over at her angry ex.

"It's up to you, Emily." Paige says slightly defeated. Emily looks between the two and decides it is probably safer for all involved if she stays so she sits on the chair next to her door.

"Thanks for getting us together, Em." Alison tells her and then she swallows down the edge of fear building. "Paige and I are both lucky to have you as a friend."

Paige interrupts her before she can say anything else. "That's the only thing we have in common." Emily looks nervously at Alison waiting to see the old DiLaurentis temper come out.

"Paige... "Alison says almost in a whisper, she walks toward her "I am ashamed of the way I treated you. I put people down to... feel better about myself." She says holding back tears; she has never really admitted that out loud to anyone, not even herself really.

"You are a terrible person, Alison." Paige rebuttals, with tears threatening to fall any moment. "And I hated you for it. I didn't care if you were dead. I was happy you were gone." Her voice breaks.

Alison shakes her head as tears brim her eyes, she swallows and tries to breath. "I'm sorry."

"For what you did to me or for yourself?" Paige asks a tear falling.

Tears escapes Alison's eyes, "For all of it." She says honestly, her voice thick with emotion.

Emily walked Paige out and headed back to her room, Alison was sitting on her bed looking a little dejected.

As Emily enters the room Alison asks, "You want to order some food?"

"Uh, I already have plans. It's a school thing." Emily says grabbing her jacket, trying to avoid making eye contact.

Alison gets up off the bed and asks with a smile, "Can I tag along?"

"I invited Paige. So..." Emily tells her nervously.

"Oh." Alison says slightly heartbroken.

"Yeah, I get it." She states trying to shake it off.

"So I'm sure this sounds lame, but do you care if I stay for a little bit? My dad's working late and I just... I don't want to go home to an empty house." She asks sitting back on Em's bed.

"Yeah. My mom's in the den if you need anything." Emily tells her walking closer to her bed before she heads to the door.

Alison watches her and something passes across her face,"Em?" She says to get her attention.

Emily stops and turns to look at her. "When I was talking to Paige I realized that I owe you an apology, too." Emily stops and looks at her.

"I always made you think that your feelings for me were totally one-sided." Alison starts, Emily looks slightly shocked. "That wasn't true. Those kisses weren't just for practice." Alison slightly tilts her head locking her blue eyes with Em's dark browns.

Emily is at a loss, she finally says "I don't know what you want me to say." Looking at Ali expectantly.

"You don't have to say anything." She says a worry line etching her forehead.

Still struggling to understand she opens her mouth and nothing comes out. Finally she asks, "Why are you telling me this now?"

"I just thought you should know." Alison tells her emotion lacing her voice.

Emily stands there feeling defeated for a moment before she looks at Ali and then leaves. Alison sits in stunned silence not able to process Emily just walking out; she feels more tiny cracks forming. She doesn't know what she was expecting but this hurt more than she could've ever imagined. Of course Emily doesn't still have feelings for her, it was to late, too much damage had been done. Who could love a monster like her?!

Emily decided she needs time to process, and the best way to do that was to keep her plans. It could be fun anyways, she meet Sydney and Paige outside the school. Emily decided to get some popcorn.

"Here you go." She says handing it Paige with a smile.

"Bridget Woo just told me she saw Jenna tonight." Paige tells her with a smile

"She's probably drunk." Emily says with a giggle.

"Jenna or Bridget?" Sydney asks curiously with a smirk.

"Bridget." They both answer at the same time.

."She also told me Shana's dead." Paige tells Emily with wide eyes.

"Who are these people?" Sydney asks confused.

"Jenna's a blind girl who used to go to our school. Her and Shana were dating, right?" Paige asks Emily.

"I- I don't know what they were." She answers stumbling over her words.

"You don't like her?" Sydney asks trying to follow.

"Alison and Jenna hated each other. My friends and I didn't realize we had been drafted into their war before it was too late." She answers regretfully.

"Too late for what?" Sydney asks with a slight snicker.

"Three minutes till show time, folks. Find your seats and your duet partners." _Thank god_ Emily thought to herself, she came to forget about Ali for a bit not bring up the whole Jenna thing and her death,

"So are you Anna or Elsa?" Paige asks in a flirtatious tone.

"I'm humming." Emily answers giggling looking at the other two who giggle as well as they enter the school to find their seats.

After about an hour of waiting Alison starts to get restless and decides to head home. As she leaves Emily's a car turns on and starts to follow. She heads for town and notices she's still being followed. As she gets closer to town she decides to head into the chapel to hide. She shoots a text to all four of the girls.

 **SOS- I'm at the church.**

As she enters the chapel she makes her way to the front of the church when she hears someone down the small hallway. She looks back at the front doors and then heads toward the room down the hallway where the sound was coming from. As she turns into the room she notices the window is open and the wind is blowing the shutters causing a banging sound. She walks over and closes the shutters and turns to see Mona standing there.

Alison swallows, "You don't scare me, Mona." Her voice quivers.

"You're not as good of a liar as you used to be" Mona answers tauntingly. Alison pulls her jacket tighter and brushes past Mona.

Mona follows aways behind Alison "I know you were all in New York the night Shana was murdered." She says causing Alison to stop in her tracks." And I can prove it."

Alison resolves herself and turns around, "What do you want, Mona?" She asks her inner bitch coming out to mask how scared she truly is.

"What I've always wanted... and that's for you to leave town. I don't care where you go or how you get there. I want you gone." She says her words coming out harsher with every step she takes toward Alison.

"I'm not a threat to you." Alison tells her truthfully, she is done playing these power struggle games.

"You may have convinced Hanna and the others that you changed. And maybe you are trying to be a decent person, but that won't last for long." Mona says knowingly, she knows the bitch that lies under the surface.

"People do change." Alison says raising her eyebrows.

"When someone shows me who they are, I believe them. I don't need to be taught a lesson more than once." Anger flares in Mona's eyes.

"You're suddenly the victim of what, Mona? My bullying? What do you call what you did to those girls? You almost killed Hanna." Alison tells her with disgust in her voice.

"No one feels worse about that than I do." She says getting a little teary eyed. "But I'm all better now. Even the doctors say so." She says insolently.

"I don't believe you." Alison says stepping closer to Mona.

"If you could prove that we were in New York, you would have done it already." She says feeling the old Alison DiLaurentis wanting to cut her down.

"I'm back and I'm staying, so get used to it."

"No one wants you here." Mona tries to cut her off.

"You're wrong, Mona. Just like before, everyone wants to be my friend. And that's what you're afraid of." She tells her voice dripping in disdain.

"All I had to do was say "I'm sorry" to Cindy and Mindy and they were practically begging me to sit at their lunch table. You're scared because you know that it's not gonna take me long to win over your army of losers. I made you Loser Mona once, and you know I can do it again." Alison instantly regretted it as the words left her mouth but she would not be bullied, and not by Mona of all people.

Mona slaps her across the face with all the strength she can muster. Alison is stunned for a moment, and returns the slap her ring accidently cutting Mona's face.  
Alison talks a deep calming breathe. "We don't have to do this. Leave me alone." She says with force and turns on her heels and leaves the chapel,

As she leaves the chapel she sends another quick text,

 **Make that my place.**

When Alison makes it back home Aria, and Spencer were already there waiting for her in her room. Emily was downstairs making Ali tea. Alison sat in her chair while Spencer watched her dad look around her room and turn the light off and Aria tried Hanna one more time. "Hey, Han, we're all at Ali's. You might be asleep, but just call us when you get this."

Aria sat down next to Ali while Spencer paced. "I don't think it was a coincidence that all of you were busy tonight." Alison said her voice breaking.

"Did you see who was driving?" Spencer asks troubled.

"It couldn't have been Mona." Alison says staring off. She looks up at Spencer. "She got into that church way too fast. She had help."

"Sounds like an ambush." Aria says as Emily returns with a cup and saucer for Alison.

She hands it Alison who can barely hold it. "You're shaking." Emily says worried.

"Hey, here." Arai tells her taking the cup and saucer from Alison's shaking hands and setting it on the table between them. Emily sits on the arm of Ali's chair.

"Well, what did you do when she slapped you?' Aria asks curiously but also concerned.

Alison pauses for a moment thinking how to answer. "I just stared at her."

"Look, I think you're right. If Mona had any proof that we were in New York, she would have used it by now." Spencer says comfortingly. "She was just trying to scare you."

"Well, she succeeded." Alison says looking at Spencer still dazed.

Aria, Spencer, and Emily decided that they should probably head home for the night. As they are leaving, Alison calls, "Hey, Em?" in a small voice.

Emily stops and turns as the other two walk down the steps and out the front door. "Yeah?" She asks still worried about Ali after the incident with Mona.

"C-could you please stay with me tonight?" She asks afraid, Em will say no.

"Sure Ali." She tells her reassuringly,"I just need to call my mom first. Alison looks for something to sleep in as Emily calls her mom and explains, "Ali's really missing her mom tonight. Okay. I will." She tells her mom before hang up.

"She's okay with me staying over. She said to give you a big hug." Emily tells Ali nervously playing with her phone.

"You probably don't remember what I told you when I pulled you out of that barn." Alison says as she plays with the hanger in her hand.

"I remember every word... but I don't know what's real and what I made up." She says as she walks over to Alison bed and sits down, she swallows thickly. Alison sits on the other side of her bed. "You said you missed me the most."

"You were the hardest one to leave behind." Alison says her blue eyes swirl with emotion as they lock with Emily's chocolate brown.

"W-we should probably get some sleep," Emily says nervously

"Ok" Alison says, "Do you want to change first?" She asks handing Emily some shorts and a tank top.

Emily has been lying in Ali's bed for what feels like hours, fighting with herself internally. Finally she gives in, "Ali? Are you asleep?" She asks tentatively.

Alison had been trying to sleep but couldn't keep the beautiful brunette lying right next to her out of her head. When she hears Em she hesitates for a few seconds before she rolls toward Em. She looks at those brown eyes and adjusts herself onto the pillow Emily is laying on. She can see some kind of internal struggle going on inside Emily. They just look at each other for a few seconds, Emily makes the first move and leans in and gentle kisses Alison's full heart-shaped lips. As Alison starts kissing her back they break part and look at each other Emily lifts her hand from under the blanket and grabs Alison's face and kiss her deeper running her hand through her gorgeous blonde hair. Alison takes control kissing Emily passionately and pushes her onto her back and straddles her hips. She deepens the kiss exploring Em's mouth and is met at first tentatively by Emily's tongue. As the kisses become more heated Emily slips her hand under Alison's shirt feeling her soft skin. Alison grabs her shirt and pulls it off, left with just her black sports bra on, Emily runs her hand across the skin that is know exposed, she flips Alison over and is pulled on top of her. She kisses from her bellybutton up to her bra line. A little voice in her head keeps yelling at her to stop. She is so intoxicated by the sight of Alison below her she almost can't stop herself. She kisses Alison once again but this time a little more chased as she pulls back she lays next to Alison and pulls her into her arms.

Alison is sad by the loss of Emily's lips but she's kind of glad Emily stopped them. In all honesty she was not ready to go all the way with Em, at least not yet and if they kept making out like this it would be hard to stop. Emily would be the first girl she ever slept with and she didn't want to disappoint her. As Ali snuggles into Em she tells her, "Em I….really missed you." She chickens out at the last minute, she desperately wants to tell Emily she loved her, she had never truly felt love before but she knew that she loved this girl without a shadow of a doubt.

The next day the girls decide to meet in the courtyard before class to discuss the Mona incident again. When they get there Hanna is obviously hung over. "If you feel as bad as you look... "Aria starts.

"Not so loud. " Hanna says putting her hand out to quite the petite brunette.

"So how does Mona know that we were in New York?" Alison asks in a quite tone for Hanna's sake.

"She's Mona." Aria says with a knowing look." But how did she send that "New York minute" text to your burner phone the night we got back into town?" Aria says in confusion.

"The other day I learned how to make my own satellite on the Web." Spencer says not even looking away from her phone.

"What are you going to do with a satellite?" Hanna asks sarcastically.

"The point is that you can learn to do anything on the Web." Spencer says looking up at Hanna briefly.

"Using a Bluetooth sniper rifle, the hacker can receive signals from a thousand yards away. You can be blue-snarfed in seconds, and the entire contents of your phone will be wirelessly uploaded." Spencer reads off her phone matter-of-factly.

"So Mona blue-snarfed us?" Spencer rolls her eyes and shakes her head at Aria.

Alison walks toward the cafeteria and the others follow suit. Everyone is standing around Mona, staring daggers at Alison as she enters.

She folds her arms across her defensively as does Mona as she walks toward the small group. "What's going on?" Alison asks slightly anxious.

"Some people really did hope that you changed." Lucas spits at her as he gets up and takes a step towards them.

"We're not afraid of you, Mona." Spencer says standing next to Alison.

"Afraid of me?" She says from behind Cindy and Mindy. She steps out between the two.

"What lies has she told you?" She reaches for the cut on her face, "Alison attacked me last night. And when she started saying things like she could make me disappear," The other girls start looking at Alison suspiciously. "I turned my phone to video." She says holding out her phone.

Spencer takes it and the other girls scoot around the phone, Alison just glares at Mona.

"You're scared because you know it's not gonna take me long to win over your army of losers. I made you Loser Mona once and you know I can do it again." They all watch as Alison slaps Mona.

Alison shakes her head in disbelief, "It's... "She tries to explain but everyone looks at her like the old Alison. She glares at Mona and then walks away from the girls and out of the cafeteria.

She heads to the bathroom and grabs the sink looking down, away from the mirror, trying not to cry. She looks up as Emily comes in followed closely by Hanna, Spencer, and Aria. She turns from the sinks. "That is the last time I underestimate that bitch." She says anger boiling over.

"How are you going to try and spin this one, Ali?" Emily asks her arms folded defensively.

"I mean, we know you're a great liar, so I'm sure this is going to be a good one." Emily says hurt.

"Everything I told you last night was true." She says looking only at Emily, then she continues.

"She slapped me first. I swear it." Pleading for at least Emily to believe her.

"I didn't tell you that I slapped her back because I felt terrible about it." Looking at all the girls this time.

"'Loser Mona'? Really? Are we back to that again?" Hanna asks appalled.

"I know how it looks. But you know what she's capable of. I mean, she set me up." Alison says slightly desperate, "Come on, guys. Mona's found a lot of ways to trick us into believing things were real when they're not."

"I mean, Spence, you landed in Radley because of one of those elaborate stunts she pulled." She said looking at Spencer.

"Maybe Mona deserved it. But you went out of your way to lie to us." Emily says hurt yet again by Ali; she can't believe she had let her in again. She turns and walks away followed by the other three girls. Alison stands there in shock not able to move. She never intended to hurt anyone especially not Emily.

Alison didn't see Emily or the other girls the whole rest of the day at school. She decided she should try to go talk to Emily and apologize. When she got there Emily's mom was headed out and let her in and told her she was up in her room.

Alison walks into Emily's room to find her in her window seat watching an old movie.

"Em, I know I screwed up." Alison starts, "Em, will you look at me please?" She says pleadingly.

Emily sits with her arms crossed not looking at Ali. "Why wouldn't you just tell us the truth? It's so much easier than lying." She said with little emotion.

Alison makes her way over to sit next to Emily, "I didn't tell you everything because I was afraid that I was gonna lose you." She says looking at Em, emotion thick in her voice.

She reaches out and squeezes her hand, "Please.: She whispers touching Emily's face and pushing her hair behind her ear. She leans in and their lips connect and it's a heat kiss filled with need.

Emily breaks the kiss and walks away from Alison and turns to her. "That's not going to fix this" She starts to head for her door.

Alison sits there looking broken when something on the TV grabs her attention. There is a beep of a notification and then, " **There is breaking news tonight in the investigation of the Jane Doe who was buried in Alison DiLaurentis's grave."** Alison stands from the window seat and walks closer to the TV. **"We expect the Rosewood Police Department to make a statement regarding the identity of the murdered girl."** Emily walks back over and stands next to Alison.

"We need to get the others." Emily says as she puts out an SOS to Aria, Spencer, and Hanna.

They all gather in Emily's living room with their significant others and Alison and Emily sit together on one of the couches.

On the TV they hear, " **Announcing the identity of the body found in the DiLaurentis backyard 2 years ago. This mystery has continued to haunt Rosewood as the murder has never been solved. And this announcement is right on the heels of the more recent murder of Alison's mother Jessica DiLaurentis."** Alison reaches over and grabs Emily's hand for support. Emily grabs her hands with both of hers reassuringly as Alison put her other hand on Em's..

 **"** **And not only that, the police department is under a lot of pressure right now as these are not the only murders... "**

Hanna scoots up next to Spencer and asks, "Are they together now?"

"Have you been drinking again?" Spencer asks accusingly.

"I had one sip of beer." She says defensively.

 **"** **Oh, here he comes, we're going live. We take you now to the Rosewood police chief. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen."** They all grab their significant others hands as they wait.

 **"** **I've called this press conference because we received confirmation tonight that the name of the victim that was buried alive on the DiLaurentis property was Bethany Young.** They all look around sadly as the listen.

 **She was a 17-year-old patient at the Radley Institution and was believed to have run away from the hospital on the night that Alison DiLaurentis was allegedly kidnapped.**

"Did they just say 'allegedly'? " Spencer says in a bit of a panic.

 **The victim's parents have been notified and the family is requesting at this time that you respect their privacy and allow them to grieve over the loss of their loved one. There will be no comments and no questions**...

Just as the bulletin is wrapping up there is a huge booming sound and glass flying everywhere. Emily pulls Alison to her tightly shielding her from the glass. "Oh, my God!" Alison cries.

"What the hell was that?!" Caleb yells trying to protect Hanna

"Are you okay?" Aria asks in fear.

They all make their way outside and see debris and smoke. "Guys, what just happened?" Alison says in shock.

" Oh, my God." Emily says as the make their way through the wreckage.

They all stop in front of Toby's house. ". Toby... ...your house." Spencer mutters.

"Was there anyone in there?" Caleb asks in alarm.

"Toby, stay here! Please!" Spencer begs as he runs toward his house.

All five of their phones ding with a new message.


	18. Chapter 18

**Sorry for the delay, I kind of lost my groove for this story and didn't want to put out something forced. This is my first Emison fic so it's kind of my baby! LOL**

 **Please review, they make my day!**

To Run or not to Run

"It's from 'A.'" Alison says her voice trembling, maybe it was a mistake coming back after all.

"What does it say?" Caleb asks in concern

"Did you miss me, bitches?" Aria reads fear coloring her voice as her heart drops.

"It can't be." Emily says as she sways back and forth nervously", Shana's dead."

"Where's Toby?" Hanna asks looking around for him.

"I don't know." Spencer answers, looking at what's left of the Cavanaugh's house.

Suddenly there is another explosion and the house goes up in flames throwing everyone back. Alison grabs Emily protectively holding onto her as they hit the ground.

The police arrive and take all their statements about the events of the night before sending them home so as not to impede the investigation.

The girls decide to reconvene in Emily's room. Spencer is on the phone with Toby, while Aria watches the police from Em's window, Alison paces nervously, Hanna sits in the chair next to the door, and Emily camps out on her bed.

"Well, what did Toby say?" Aria asks as she turns from the window.

"Nobody was inside the house." Spencer says with a bit of concern.

"Thank God." Emily sighs in relief.

"Yeah, but his dad did break his leg trying to avoid a tree coming down." Spencer says folding her arms anxiously.

"It could've been worse." Hanna says trying her best to reassure Spencer.

"Yeah. Caleb's with them at the hospital." Spencer says to Hanna with a small smile.

"Guys, what does this mean?" Alison asks as she shows them the text again. "That we were wrong about Shana?" She says panic rising in her voice.

"That 'A's' alive and knows that I killed her." Aria says overcome with guilt.

"That's impossible. We all heard what Shana said in that theater." Emily states matter-of-factly.

"No, she never said that she was 'A.' She never used those words." Aria says crossing her arms defensively.

"She had everything but the letter painted on her." Emily says shaking her head in disbelief, "A" had to be gone or that meant that Alison would run again and she couldn't stand the thought of it.

"Em, come on. We got a text seconds after the house blew up. Either Shana can cause explosions from the grave or 'A' is back". Hanna says angrily, tried of dancing around the truth.

The wheels start turning in Alison head as they talk, she has to get away from Rosewood before 'A' finishes what they started that night two years prior.

"Or never left." Spencer interjects.

"Well, what are you saying?" Emily asks in concern, she's terrified that Ali is going to take off again.

"I think "A" took a nap and woke up tonight." Spencer says deep in thought.

"'A's' been here the whole time just watching us, waiting for the right moment to resurface." Aria says wringing her hands tensely.

"But why now?" Alison asks sounding defeated.

"That's what we have to figure out." Spencer says resigned to get to the bottom of all this.

Alison doesn't seem to believe this as plans start forming in her mind.

The next day at school the girls meet up at lunch. Alison had been up all night making plans and getting things in order in case things got too bad and she need to run.

"Hey." Alison says sounding tired as she sits down at the head of the table with Spencer and Aria on each side. Emily sat next to Spencer and Hanna sat across from her.

"You okay?" Aria asks a jumpy Emily who seem twitchy.

"Somebody dropped their lunch tray and she practically jumped out of her skin." Alison says a little aggravated.

"So much for the new normal." Hanna says in aggravation.

"Yeah, I knew it was too good to be true." Emily says looking around anxiously as she takes a sip of her water.

"Too good to be true? These last two weeks have been nothing but crap." Spencer says in frustration over all the new misery that "A" has caused them.

"Is Toby still at the hospital?" Hanna asks her in distress.

"Uh, yeah." Spencer tells her as she picks at her food. Alison phone notification goes off. "He's there with Jenna and her mom."

"What's up with Caleb?" Emily asks Hanna gently, looking at her with a worried look. "How long is he in town for?"

"Who knows?" Hanna says apathetically.

Alison checks her phone and murmurs, "Oh, my God."

"What is it?" Emily asks her worry in her voice.

Alison holds her phone out in front of her so the girls can see; it's a video of her mother being buried. "Oh, my God. Ali." Spencer says in shock.

Alison gasps and shakes, Aria and Spencer each grab one of her arms reassuringly. A message appears over the video, Alison reads it her voice trembling "I buried your mom the same way, I watched her bury you. 'A.''" As she finishes reading the screen goes black and "Content Deleted" flashes on the screen. Alison pulls her phone back as the girls look at her sadly.

Alison puts her phone back in her purse and stands up from the table shaking. She turns and walks away and Emily jumps up to follow, "I'll catch you guys later." She says before running after Ali.

She finds Alison sitting on a bench head in her hands, her body trembling as she sobs. Emily gently puts her hand on her shoulder and sits next to her. Before she has time to say anything Alison grabs her around her waist and clings to her for dear life. She runs her fingers through Alison golden tresses and rocks her soothingly.

After school they decide to meet at Hanna's house as her mom wouldn't be home till late. Spencer and Emily sit at the breakfast bar as Hanna leans across the counter and Aria stands beside Spencer.

"'A' killed my mother." Alison states while pacing in Hanna's kitchen.

"Who could it be? Mona? Someone working with Shana?" Emily asks in confusion, she thought they had figured this whole mess out but here they are again.

"Yeah, or someone we haven't even thought of yet." Aria says unsure of who would want Ali's mom dead.

"Spence, are you okay?" Hanna asks in a kind voice.

"My dad didn't do it. I accused him of murder, but he didn't do it." She says looking at Alison with tears in her eyes. Alison looks confused at Spencer and then her eyes shift to Emily who looks just as confused.

"Well, it made sense why you thought he did." Hanna tells her reassuringly.

"Unless your dad's 'A.'" Aria says as Spencer looks at her in shock. "I'm sorry; I'm just putting it out there."

"No, he can't be. And he thought that I killed Alison, now Bethany." Spencer says her voice thick with tears.

"That still doesn't rule out your sister." Hanna tells her trying to ease Spencer's guilt.

"Some things never change and now we're back to square one." Alison says defensively.

"No, Ezra thinks that Bethany can ultimately lead us to 'A.'" Aria says trying to bring some hope to the situation.

"Okay, then we have to try to help Ezra find out as much as we can about her." Spencer says agreeing with Aria.

"Aren't we stretching a little here?" Emily asks not buying the connection

"You have a better plan?" Spencer asks getting frustrated.

"I can't wait around for answers. I need to leave town now." Alison says fear bubbling up inside her chest.

"But you just got back here." Emily says looking at Alison with pleading eyes.

"The only reason I came back is because I thought that 'A' was dead." Alison says with fire in her eyes, she couldn't stay now.

"If 'A' wanted to kill you, why not just do it? Why play games and blow up a house?" Hanna asks in her usual direct manner.

"I have no idea. But I'm not sticking around to find out." Alison seethes, the old Alison DiLaurentis temper flaring up in full force.

"But if you leave Rosewood, then we can't protect you." Emily says her voice breaking as she feels her heart shattering all over again.

"Yeah, and besides, it's not like before, Ali. The cops are watching your every move." Aria tells her trying to diffuse the situation.

"The whole world knows you're alive." Hanna says seriously.

"Even if you could run, where would you hide?" Spencer asks her with genuine concern.

After talking over their options Hanna volunteered for Ali to stay with her and the other girls leave before their parents start to worry. While Hanna was talking to her new boy toy, Alison decided to call Trevor in New York to see if he could come and get her. She told Hanna she'd be in the kitchen.

"Ali?" Hanna calls as she comes back into the kitchen. She can hear Alison talking to someone.

"I don't know…Just get there, okay? Yeah, okay…Yeah…See you then." Alison is sitting out on the small deck.

Hanna walked out and asks, "Who are you on the phone with?"

"Doesn't matter." Alison says in a tone that leaves little room for argument.

"Well, it sounded like you are making plans to go somewhere. Were you?" She asks raising her eyebrows. "Alison." She says firmly.

"I can't live in a world where I jump every time the doorbell rings." She says as she gets up her temper flaring.

"So what? You're just gonna run away?" Hanna snaps back.

"Please don't tell the girls or try to stop me." Alison says slightly pleading.

"What are you gonna do? Say that you were kidnapped again?" Hanna asks with sarcasm in her tone.

"Do you think I want to live like this? Because I don't. I'd love to stay, Hanna, but I can't. Not while that psychopath is still out there." She says her voice rising as she gets angrier. "And don't worry, after I'm gone, you can go back to focusing on your little love triangle." She says to really get under Hanna's skin; she doesn't like being questioned like this. She walks past Hanna with a sneer.

"Ali, wait." Hanna says slight hurt.

"I've made my decision, Hanna." She tells her annoyance coming off her waves.

"So have I." Hanna says determined. "I'm gonna help you."

-

While Hanna is getting some things for her Alison calls Noel to see if he can meet her at the train station and drive her to meet Trevor.

"Um, Noel's gonna pick me up from Princeton Station at 10:00." Alison tells Hanna as she enters her room.

"You're taking the train?" Hanna says in a worried tone.

"Not from here. I need you to take me to Newtown Station at 8:00." Alison says grabbing a paper off Hanna's printer.

"No. No. I'll drive you to Princeton." Hanna tells Ali grabbing some clothes from her closet, "Look, I want to make sure that you get there safely. And my mom's out with Ted, so we can use her car." She puts the clothes on the bed.

"Hanna, you don't have to give me so much." She says appreciatively.

"Ali, you can't just walk out of your house with a bag of clothes." She tells her in an obvious tone.

"You're right." She says in understanding. "But I want to see my dad... before I leave. And I need to get a few things from my house." She says resolutely.

"Well, I'll drop you off now and then I'll go get cash for you and just call me whenever you're ready to leave." Hanna tells her with a reassuring smile as she walks toward the bedroom door.

"Thank you." Ali tells her sincerely as Hanna turns around. "You're really saving me, Hanna." Alison hugs her tightly.

Hanna pulls away nervously, "Come on." She says as she grabs her hand. Alison sets the train schedule on the table by Hanna's door as they leave.

Emily went to question Paige about the vague threat that she had given her before Alison had returned to school. She had gotten her to at least give up a few names of the people threatening Ali. Now she needed to go to Hanna's to talk with her so she didn't have to think about leaving anymore.

When she got to Hanna's she knocked a few times but there was no answer. She starts getting worried and tries the front door, it swings open and she heads upstairs to Hanna's room.

"Hey, didn't you hear me knocking?" Emily asks in annoyance, Hanna had her worried that one of them had been hurt or worse.

"No. Sorry." Hanna said hiding the money she had gotten for Alison.

"Paige named names. Lucas and Melissa are working with Mona. And they're all after Alison." Em says getting frustrated.

"Melissa? Oh, my God. Have you told Spencer?" Hanna asks trying to get Emily to leave.

"No, not yet. Where is Ali?" Emily asks curiously, noticing her absence.

"Um, she went home to have dinner with her dad." Hanna says trying to placate Emily.

"I'll go tell her." Emily says turning to leave.

"No!" Hanna practically screams, Emily turns to look at her. "Why don't you wait till the morning to do that?"

"This is too important to wait." Emily says getting frustrated as she spins to leave she notices a paper on Hanna's table. "8 o'clock train?" She asks picking up the paper

"Yeah. I was thinking of visiting my grandma." Hanna lies easily.

"Wrong direction, Hanna. New Jersey isn't on the way to Oklahoma." She says setting the paper down and walking toward Hanna's bed and grabbing the bag. She sees the money Hanna had hid there and looks through the bag full of clothes. "Ali's leaving." She says hurt.

"No. She's not. She was going to but I stopped her." Hanna says having trouble maintaining eye contact with Emily.

"I don't believe you." Emily says turning to walk away hurt evident on her face.

"Emily, wait." Hanna yells going after Em. Emily stops and looks at Hanna. "Okay, fine. You're right." Hanna says shrugging her shoulders.

"How could you let her go without telling us?" Emily says the hurt making her angry.

"It's not safe for her here." Hanna states as if it was all she needed to say.

"Like she'll be safer out there all alone." Emily's starting to lose her temper quickly.

"It's what she wants." Hanna says bluntly.

"Are you sure that's the only reason why you're helping her?" Emily asks anger coloring her words.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Hanna asks slightly hurt.

"Your hair. Your clothes. You know, a lot's changed with you since she's been back." Emily says venomously trying to cut Hanna.

"Oh, yeah. And nothing's changed with you? I saw you holding her hand last night." Hanna spits back .

"She was frightened. She reached for me." She says defensively, it wasn't Hanna's business what she did. "What was I supposed to do, slap her hand?" She says feed up. "Don't you dare follow me." She says before she turns to leave.

She runs to her car and drives toward Alison's house as fast as she can.

-

Alison unlocks her front door and walks into the dark house. She heads to the living room looking for her dad so she can say goodbye before she leaves permanently. She turns on the lamp in the living room and takes her phone out to try calling him.

"Dad?" She says worried.

"Hey Ali!" He says kindly.

"Hey, where are you?" She says apprehensively.

"Didn't you get my message? I had to stay late to work on some paperwork." He says regretfully.

"No, I didn't get your message." She says sadly.

"I'm sorry sweetie, I can leave early." He tells her.

"That's okay." She says her voice wavering.

"Are you sure Al?" He asks a bit worried.

"Yeah, don't worry. Um, I'll just sleep over at Hanna's tonight." She tells him trying to ease his mind.

"Love you Alison."

"I love you, too. Bye, dad." She says sadly knowing that this was bye for good, she hangs up and heads up to her room. A hooded figure sitting in one of the chairs turns the lamp back off.

Alison grabs one of her favorite scarves; yellow was her favorite color after all and she wraps it loosely around her neck. She grabs one of the drawers from her bureau and flips it over to take off the false bottom to get her fake IDs and some cash. She puts them in her purse and puts the drawer back together and puts the contents back in the drawer. She puts the drawer back and zips up her purse before taking one last look at her room. She turns off the lights and closes the door as she heads back downstairs.

She notices the light she had turned on is now off and she walks into the living room and asks tentatively, "Dad? "

She backs up feeling a presence in the room with her; she is hit hard across her upper back and falls to the floor. The wind knocked out of her she tries to get to her knees so she can stand. The figure pushes her down with their booted foot and grabs the scarf as Ali begs, "No!" as she is yanked up by her scarf, gasping for air as she tries to fight off her attacker. She flips around facing the masked person who wraps the scarf around her neck tighter.

Emily pulls up in front of Alison's house and turns the engine off.

Alison keeps trying to fight off her assailant as she's slammed on a table gasping and choking she reaches out and finds a letter opener but she's starting to lose consciousness and the figure throws her to the floor.

Emily enters Alison house leery as no lights seem to be on, as she rounds the corner she sees a hooded figure standing over Alison. She rushes them and tries to grab around their neck, the person grapples with her and shoves her into a bookcase where she grabs a book and hits the assailant across the face hard. The figure pushes Emily into a table and she hits the ground hard as figure flees. Emily pushes herself up as Alison lets out a cry of pain. "Oh, my God." She says crawling over to Alison.

"Ali." She pulls Alison to her and holds her.

Alison grabs onto Emily as she coughs and gasps. Emily holds her tightly afraid that she almost lost her forever. "It's okay." Emily says as Alison coughs still trying to get her breath. Emily kisses her forehead gently, "I got you Ali."

Emily gets up and turns the light on and turns to Alison, "We're calling the police." She says protectively.

"No. You can't do that." Alison says pulling at her scarf. "And you can't call my dad either." She says in pure panic.

"Ali, someone broke into your house and attacked you." She says starting to get upset.

"Exactly." Alison says taking her scarf off. "Okay, if anyone knows that this happened, I'm never gonna be able to leave here." She says slightly breathless as she leans on a side table for support.

"Look, if you don't want anyone to know then fine. Okay, but you're not going anywhere. At least, not tonight." Emily tells her, worry furrowing her brow.

Alison looks at her in slight defeat as she rubs her sore neck.

Alison and Emily send Aria and Spencer a SOS to meet at Emily's house. Spencer was the first to make it to Emily's, so they sat and start talking.

"It wasn't 'A'. Whoever it was could've killed me and chose not to." Alison said still shaken.

"Who would want to scare you like that?" Spencer asks troubled.

"Lucas." Emily looks at Spencer apprehensively, "Your sister."

"Melissa?" Spencer asks confused.

"She's part of Mona's gang." Emily states annoyed.

"Look, we don't know who it is. Okay? It was too dark to see anything." Alison says angrily wanting to drop it.

Aria rushes in and looks at Ali and hugs her "Oh, my God. How could this happen?"

"It happened because she was alone. Hanna wasn't with her." Emily says still fuming.

"Where is Hanna?" Spencer asks curiously.

"I didn't call her." Emily says unapologetically. "She was gonna help Ali leave town tonight."

"What?" Aria and Spencer both yell.

"Don't be pissed at her. What happened is just more proof that I should go. We're no closer to figuring out who "A" is." Alison tells them in frustration.

"That might not be true. Eddie Lamb gave this to Ezra." Aria tells her handing her the drawing that Bethany made of Mrs. D.

"Eddie? Wait, from Radley?" Spencer asks getting up from the chair by the door.

"Yeah." Aria says as Spencer and Emily look at the drawing over Ali's shoulder.

"What's it supposed to be?" Emily asks slightly disturbed by the image.

"It's a drawing of my mother." Alison says staring at the drawing.

"We think that Bethany drew that while she was in there." Aria says from the chair Spencer had been sitting in.

"So they did know each other." Alison says in disbelief.

"Doesn't look like Bethany liked your mom too much." Emily says obviously.

"Really? What gave it away? Was it the demon or the spear?" Spencer asks sarcastically. "What did Eddie say?"

"He didn't. He left it anonymously. Ezra still has a camera in his hallway and we saw it on the video." Aria tells them.

"I don't get it. Why would Eddie leave that for Ezra?" Emily asks more confused now.

"Eddie wants Ezra to know that there's something to look into at Radley." Spencer tells them piecing it together.

"One of us has to get in there." Emily says with determination.

"I vote Spencer." Aria pipes up. Spencer looks at her. "What?" Aria says defensively. "You know the place the best."

"I can't go back in there. I was committed." Spencer says aggravated.

"And her dad helped Toby's family win a settlement against Radley." Emily says backing her up.

"I think I have a way in." Spencer admits with determination.

Alison notification goes off on her phone. "See how easy it is for me to kill you? If you leave Rosewood, I will. A." Alison says standing and handing Emily here phone.

"I don't get it. For 2 years, "A's" been hunting you down like a warrior cat and now... ", Aria starts.

"'A' wants you alive and in town." Emily finishes.

"But why?" Aria asks uncertainty.

"What's worse than death?" Spencer asks them.

"Being trapped here." Alison says quietly.

Spencer and Aria head home as it was getting late. Alison sat on the end of Emily's bed while Emily reclined on the headboard.

"I never thanked you for what you did tonight." Alison says looking at Emily with appreciation.

"I didn't do anything." Emily says looking down as she blushes.

"You risked your life for me, Em." She says her eyes sparkling. "Most people see danger and they run in the opposite direction as fast as they can." Alison says leaning toward Emily.

"It's getting late." Emily says getting a bit nervous as she stands. "Do you want me to take you home?"

"I don't want to be alone tonight." Alison says looking at Emily with sad eyes. "Can I stay here?" Emily looks at her apprehensively; she was still upset about the Mona incident. "We'll just sleep. I promise." Alison says in a pleading tone, she doesn't want to leave Emily.

"Yeah. Yeah, of course." Emily says like it's no big deal.

She takes the throw pillows off her bed as Alison lies down and Emily covers her with the blanket. She lies down softly on the bed and Alison rolls toward her and looks at her with sad eyes. "E-Em?" She asks shyly. Emily looks at her waiting for her to ask her questions. "Would you hold me please?" She asks barely above a whisper.

Emily opens her arms and Alison snuggles in onto her chest, she bites her lip to keep from moaning at the feel of Allison. Emily leaned down and kissed her forehead gently, "Just sleep Ali,"

The next morning Emily took Alison back to her house so she could change before school.

"Thank you for stopping here." Alison tells Emily as makes her way out the door to get in Emily's car, they hear a car pull up and Lt. Tanner gets out.

"What's she doing here?" Emily asks Alison anxiously.

"I don't know." Alison says apprehensively. She moves to stand next to Emily. "Hi." She says sweetly to Lt. Tanner.

"Good morning, girls. Is your dad home?" She asks walking up the drive toward Alison.

"You just missed him. He left for work a minute ago." Alison tells her trying to sound disappointed.

"Oh." Tanner says seeing through Alison's lies.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Alison asks trying to seem helpful.

"Well, actually there is. I would like it if you would come down to the station later with your dad and answer some questions." Tanner tells her in a patronizing tone.

"About what?" Alison asks curiously.

"Your childhood friend, Shana Fring." Tanner says watching Alison's expression as she and Emily fidget.

Alison quickly composes herself, "I still can't believe she's gone."

"Yeah. It's so sad. "Emily says shaking her head sorrowfully.

"So much tragedy for such a small town." Tanner says in a somber tone.

"If there's anything I can help you with." Alison says helpfully.

"Well, we were hoping that you could tell us where you were the night she died." Tanner states wryly.

"I already did. I was in Philly with the girls." Alison says looking at Emily who nods in agreement.

"Specifically where in Philly... " Tanner says as the two look at each other nervously, "you know, that kind of thing." She adds staring at the two. "Well, you tell your dad to give me a call." She says handing Alison a business card. She returns to her car as Emily and Alison look at each worry evident on their faces.

As Tanner closes her door and starts her car, Alison gets a text message.

She turns back toward the house and fish out her phone, Emily follows her as Alison reads the message. "Time for the caged bird to sing. A." Fear turns in the pit of her stomach as she and Emily lock eyes and both swallow uneasily.


End file.
